I watched it begin again
by troyellalover77
Summary: You know those breakups you feel like you won't ever get over? But then in the blink of an eye, and with the help of someone maybe, you realize you're fine. And you also realize that maybe you're watching it begin again... the attraction, the first dates, hanging out all the time. But can you ever really get over your first love?
1. Chapter 1

"Can I help you?"

This man who was on my front porch turned around and I was met with the bluest of eyes. He wasn't a man, he was a boy. Well, a teenager. Just like me. And he was standing on my front porch and I have no idea what he was doing.

He sort of shrugged his shoulders. "Um, my parents are here for dinner and they told me to meet them here?"

Fuck. The new neighbors. But wait. Wasn't dinner supposed to be at their house? I was supposed to have dinner with all of them, but I bailed earlier today because well, things came up. And now they're inside my house and it's the worst timing ever. "Oh. They're still here?" Stupid question since he's standing here obviously. I didn't forget we had plans, that's why I canceled. Why couldn't this happen on a Saturday or something? Ugh.

The guy nodded and stepped into the light and my God was he beautiful. He had a perfect porcelain face with blue, blue eyes and the most perfect jawline.

"Crap," I muttered before taking a seat on the bench on my porch and searching in my bag for my water bottle. I quickly took off the cap and chugged it.  
I chugged as much as I could with not throwing up and then I looked for any food I could possibly have in my purse. But nope. Nothing.

And this guy was just standing there, watching me the whole time.

"You okay?"

I looked up to him and nodded. "Yeah, I just can't go in there. I forgot we were getting together for dinner."

"So since you forgot, you got drunk on a Tuesday night?"

one two three four five

What? Uhhhh. "Who says I'm drunk?"

He laughed as if it was such a stupid question. "Well, you really don't want to go inside, you're chugging that water bottle and I assume you're trying to find food in that bag. Also, you kind of stumbled to take a seat just now."

Yeah, okay, he was right. "So what if I am? Who cares. I thought dinner was happening at your house, not here..."

He shrugged. "It's Tuesday."

Okay, so he's judging me. But I mean, this wasn't typical behavior from me. "Look, I don't need a lecture from you right now. I was planning on coming home and going straight up stairs but now that's ruined and I'm going to get caught and then I won't be able to go to homecoming next weekend."

Then I remembered I have no boyfriend so wait, either way, I won't be going to homecoming. Great. Just great.

"So what do you suggest we do?" he asks standing up.

Wait. Is this guy going to help me? He hasn't rung the doorbell yet because my mom usually gets right on that so that's good. Maybe I can still save myself. I mean, it's not like I can just get my car and leave. I can't drive like this. I should have had Char wait before she drove off.

I looked up at him with a small smile. "I don't know. I just either need to get in there sober or get in there without them noticing me."

And then I got up and peeked inside the window and thank God you could see the dining room through the window. They were all sitting there laughing and they seemed to be eating some sort of desert. My little sister was sitting there, too, along with another girl I didn't recognize. His sister, maybe?

"I think I can sneak in through the back," I tell him, "but I doubt it's open."

He stood there with his hands in his pockets and did he just get hotter in 20 seconds? What the fuck. "So what do we do?"

I thought about it for a minute. How can we go about this plan? "After a few minutes of being with them, ask to use the bathroom. It's out of the dining room, and you're going to go through the living room and whatever. My mom will give you better instructions. Once you get to the bathroom, you'll see the sliding doors that lead out. Just open it and go back to doing your thing. I'll sneak in, and hopefully they're still just sitting there laughing or else I'm dead."

He didn't say anything for a few seconds so I assume he's taking it all in. But then he let out a laugh. And another laugh. And now he was chuckling and I really didn't know why. "When should we do this?"

Wait. Hold on. "What's so funny?"

He shook his head, but then told me anyway, "You. The way you just explained that. It was with so much passion, as if you're doing this top secret thing."

Okay, yeah, I just heard my voice and the enthusiasm I presented just now, but whatever. I'm drunk. Oh well. And I just want to get upstairs and eat that whole bag of chips I have on my nightstand. Oh my God, that sounds delicious. Oh! And I have that bag of candy too. Psh, I'll be sober in no time.

I laughed a bit too, but then turned serious. "Can we do this please?"

He nodded and then inched forward. I moved to the side before grabbing my bag that was on the ground. I quickly got off the porch and gave him the okay to ring the doorbell. As soon as he did, I went around the back way and stood in the backyard until I saw that he opened the door for me.

Wow, I think I was only standing there for less than 5 minutes. What a sweet guy trying to help me out.

I quietly went in, saw a peek of them still in the dining room and then I slowly tiptoed upstairs before they caught sight of me. I got to my room and closed the door as lightly as I possibly could. I grabbed the bag of chips, the bag of candy, the water bottle I always keep on my nightstand and dug in. I put my phone to charge as I was chowing down and went to my closet to put on something different. Thank God my parents leave to work before me and have NO idea what I wore to school today. My dad wouldn't remember but my mom sure would. She's crazy like that. Okay, not crazy, just... obsessive.

I was already feeling better, but could I pull off being completely sober? Because I definitely wasn't. I was worried about it. But ah.

Okay, I sucked it up and grabbed my bag along with my phone and quietly exited my room and went downstairs as quietly as I possibly could. I peeked from the stairs and saw that they were still just sitting there. Thank God. And before I knew it, I was outside in the backyard celebrating that I actually pulled this off. Now all I had to pull off was acting sober. I've done it before, surely I can do it again right? Okay, just kidding. I've only done it once and I only had two drinks. Not a lot like I did today. But whatever. I had to give it a shot. Maybe I can just blame it on tiredness. I did tell my mom that I was bailing because Char wanted me to help her paint her room. Yes! I'll blame it on being tired if she questions me.

I went around and grabbed my keys from my purse and opened the door. Loud enough so my mom could come over to me like I knew she would.

Yep. "Gabriella! You're home."

I turned around and closed the door and took a deep breath and prayed everything would be fine before facing her. "Hey, mom."

She smiled at me and gave me a hug. "The new neighbors from across the street are here. Come meet them." She told me in a whisper just in case I denied it or something. Maybe she thinks I bailed earlier because I didn't want to meet them, but that's not the case at all.

"Sure."

I followed her into the living room and I couldn't help but chuckle to see the guy there who was just helping me out. How he's going to pretend not to know me. But I stopped myself before they could ask what's wrong and look at me all weirdly. Plus it was rude to laugh in front of people you don't know.

"Gabriella, these are our new neighbors, the Bolton's," my mom introduced them to me, "This is Jack, Rebecca, Camille, and Troy."

I smiled at all of them, but mostly Troy. Troy Bolton. What a strong name. "Hi."

"And this is my daughter, Gabriella," my mom continued, "who I'm sure has a great excuse for not showing up for dinner. Am I right?" Why is she calling me out in front of these people like that? Ha. I shouldn't be surprised. That's who my mom was.

I scrunched my nose and smirked before taking a seat at the table next to my sister and grabbing a spoonful of mashed potatoes before throwing it down on my plate. "You see," I tell her picking up the gravy, "I was walking out of school and coming home and then I remembered Char asked me to help paint her room. I mean, you're always telling me to never break promises so I went home with her and we painted her room. And now I'm here... a little late, but I'm here nonetheless."

Okay, we didn't paint her room, but she DID ask me to help her. So it wasn't technically a lie, we just didn't get to it today.

My mom squinted her eyes at me as if she didn't believe me but she knew I wouldn't lie while using Char's name because she could easily call Char's mom and ask if it's true. But THANKFULLY Char's mom is out of town on business so we're in the clear.

I looked over to Troy and his sister who seemed to be chuckling at my story and it actually made me smile. I didn't mean for it to come out like a joke or whatever, it was just the way I spoke sometimes.

"Why is she repainting her room?" my sister, Madison, asked.

Fuck you Madison! Don't ask questions. "She was sick of her old color, I guess, I don't know," I told her. It wasn't a lie. I just didn't know why. But she was for sure going to be painting her room. Probably this weekend. Or end of this week.

"Okay, enough about painting rooms," my dad said. Well, my step dad. But I called him dad. "Gabriella, Jack here was just telling me how his nephew is the quarterback at Agoura High."

And? "Oh yeah?" I faked enthusiasm. I honestly don't know why I would care about that.

He nodded as he wiped his mouth with a paper towel. Thank God because he had some crumbs in his beard that he's trying to grow. "Yeah, I was telling them that Taylor is the quarterback at your school. And I guess they're playing each other Friday. Should be a great game!"

A great game I am not going to. "Oh I'm sure it will be."

Of course my mom noticed the tone of my voice... which she ALWAYS does. "What, you're not excited for the game? Your boyfriend is star quarterback and they're playing their rivals this week."

Ex boyfriend. But I didn't really want to get into it here. "I don't even like football." No one really said anything, but Troy chuckled. And then I chuckled. "I mean, yeah, sure, I'm definitely excited." I can't give it away right now that we're not together.

I didn't want to divulge private things to these somewhat strangers.

"I'm sorry," I apologize. I know I'm being weird. I'm being really annoying and I think I'm talking way louder than I should. "I'm just really tired. And I think the paint got to me a bit. I'm not usually this annoying."

My mom's giving me this look like, shut up. My sister's looking at me like I'm crazy and my dad is sort of just sitting there with a blank face. The only one who really gets it is Troy and I can tell he's trying his best not to laugh which in turn is making me try not to laugh. Oh boy, I need to get out of here.

"So, we learned all about your sister, what about you, what do you like?" Rebecca asked me.

Okay, calm it down a little Gabriella. You're fine. You're well on your way to being sober, just keep drinking your water. "Oh um, well, I play tennis."

"Tennis?" she asks with a smile.

Is that what she meant? Like what my hobbies are? "Yeah, I'm on the tennis team at school and it's actually a lot more challenging than people think. You have to be able to keep up, constantly be moving."

Her smile got even bigger and now she was throwing her towel on the table and leaning a bit forward, "Yes! I was on the tennis team when I was in high school and I loved it. I still play from time to time whenever I can. It's so much fun."

"It's really big at my school," I tell her, "it's so much fun. You can come to one of my games if you'd like!"

"Oh that'd be so much fun!," she says.

Yeah, but I'll probably play like shit because of what just happened today. My life is over. And I don't understand how I'm not up in my room crying right now. Oh, yeah, because I can fake it pretty well.

Then my mom jumped in. "You can come with me! They're so entertaining."

Oh cool. Okay. So she's coming to my games now. I might regret this tomorrow because I don't necessarily get nervous, but it just adds some pressure on top of the pressure I already have from my coach. But whatever. I can deal with it.

And then the conversation goes on for a little while longer until they decide that they should leave because it's a school night. And I was ecstatic about it. I mean, not that the were annoying or anything. But I wanted to shower and get into bed and cry some more. Rebecca was sweet. She reminded me a lot of my mom. Camille was stunning. A cute little sophomore just like Madison who I'm sure are going to be fast friends. David was nice. And Troy, well Troy was unbelievably hot. And he probably thought I was a complete weirdo or maybe he understood that I was still kind of buzzed when I came downstairs.

Either way, they were cool. And it won't be bad living across the street from them. But for now, all I can do is lay in bed and cry. Because my boyfriend of a little over a year has been cheating on me for 3 fucking months. THREE MONTHS. And I didn't suspect ONE DAMN THING.

It's crazy how these things happen. And I really don't want to be down. I want to be strong and show him that I don't need him, but it's hard. It's hard when you've created so many memories with someone and you realize it's all been a sham. He doesn't care about me. He doesn't love me.

Fuck Taylor. Fuck love. Fuck everything.

* * *

"Good morning!" My best friend in the whole world, Charlotte Rose Tressler, tells me as she picks me up the next morning for school. My car's currently in the shop so this is my transportation. "Where's little Montez?"

I throw my bag onto the floor of the passenger side and shrugged as I adjust my shirt outside. "She's coming."

Char puts her car into park and I'm fixing the collar of this blouse I decided to wear. I don't know why because it's such a pain, but whatever. And as we're waiting for Madison, I see Troy coming out of his house and heading towards his car. He looks more beautiful today than yesterday. What the heck.

"Be right back," I told Char.

I quickly crossed the street, making sure there were no cars of course, and shyly made my way into his driveway. He was barely opening his door when he turned towards me. Oh crap. Now I'm supposed to talk. Uhhhhhh.

"Hey," he smiles at me, pulling his door wide open.

I smiled at him, "Hi."

He threw his backpack in his car and then turned to me and gave me his undivided attention. "What's up?"

Oh right. I came over to tell him something except I forgot. Okay, no I remember. "I just wanted to say thanks for yesterday. I'm not normally like that... or drunk on Tuesdays and uh, it was nice of you to cover for me."

Besides the fact that he helped me sneak in, during dinner, I was saying some things and my mom looked at me weird and was asking me questions, but he totally intervened and changed the subject and charmed my mom and all was forgotten.

He closed the back door and laughed it off a bit. "Oh, don't worry about. We all have those days."

Yeah, but I DON'T. Really, it's so out of character for me to be drunk on a TUESDAY. I socially drink, but if I were to get drunk, it'd be at a party. At an appropriate time. Not at 5 o'clock in the afternoon. "Still. It was really nice of you."

He shook his head as if it was nothing and went and opened his door now and the turned back around to face me as he leaned against his car. "Eh, you just owe me a favor now if I ever want something."

I was actually smiling a real smile. I didn't think I'd be able to after finding out my boyfriend had another girlfriend for three whole months, but this family moves across the street, comes over for dinner and I'm smiling. I couldn't thank them enough.

"Deal."

But now we're both standing there kind of awkwardly. Luckily, I heard a door shut and I see that it's Madison coming out.

"Well, I should get going," I tell him backing away a bit.

He nods his head as he pushed himself off his car. "Yeah, yeah, I need to get to school."

"Okay," I tell him with a little wave, "See ya later."

And then he goes into his car and I'm walking across the street and I feel like an idiot. Since when do I approach guys? But I guess I didn't see it that way. I just saw it as me talking to someone. Even though he is very, very attractive.

I got into Char's car and shut the door and buckled up. I was expecting her to pull out right away, but she didn't. She was just staring at me.

"What?" I ask.

"What?" she repeats, "What do you mean, what? What was that about?"

Okay, too many what's for my liking.

"Yeah, what was that?" Madison echoed from the backseat.

They really needed to stop with their questions. It's 7 in the morning. I'm not ready for this. "What? I just went over and basically welcomed him to the neighbor, it's not a big deal."

I can't see Madison in the back but I just imagine her rolling her eyes. And yep, by what she told me, I can tell it was introduced with an eye roll. "What was last night about then? That was us welcoming them to the neighborhood."

"Look!" I said a little too loudly. Whoops. "He just helped me out with something yesterday and I wanted to say thanks."

"Getting you in the house drunk?"

What?! How did she know? "Um..."

"I'm your sister, I know everything," she laughed, "I could so tell you were buzzed."

Great. Could my parents too? I have yet to face them since they always leave like 5 minutes before us so while they're downstairs getting their stuff, we're upstairs getting ours and we really only yell bye before leaving. "This is great. I hope the parents didn't notice."

I turned to Madison and she shook her head. "Nah, they're clueless."

Char finally put her car in reverse and got out of our driveway, "So he snuck you in? That was nice of him."

I shrugged. It was really nice of him but I didn't want to make it a big deal.

"So how are you doing?"

Ugh. I knew she was going to ask me. But I mean, I guess it's best friend code to. "Let's see... my boyfriend of a year or so has really only been my boyfriend for 9 months because he's been cheating on me for three. So, you know, I'm still not feeling that great about it."

"Fuck him," Madison said from the back, "He's an asshole and he's not worth being sad over OR getting drunk over. Seriously."

I know she was right. A YEAR. A WHOLE FUCKING YEAR. "The worst thing of it all is that he didn't just hook up with someone, he had a whole other girlfriend. Another girlfriend for three months. What the fuck? How the fuck did he pull that off?"

Char shook her head as she turned right at the stop sign. "He's shady. You both deserve so much better, unless that girl knew about you."

Yesterday I was sad about it. But today, I'm angry. I'm so mad at him. We had the most perfect relationship. We're both popular, we both have so much going for us, we both had so much fun together. It was depressing. A year of great times and memories... gone. Just like that. It was fucking gone.

Well, it wasn't all fun and games, but most of the time it was. So it sucked. A lot.

"I hate to be the one to say this, but did you not see it coming?" Char asks, and I'm not mad at her. "I mean, it's seriously been so weird, so rocky these past few months. You'd guys fight all the time."

We did. He'd be shady sometimes but not to the point where I thought he was cheating. He was just... distant. Even when we were together. It didn't seem like his mind was really there with me. But I'm stupid and I didn't even question it. I just sat through the torture.

"I honestly don't want to see another tear over him, okay?" Madison interrupts to warn me but I know she won't do anything. She saw me cry my eyes out last night after everyone left and she was really there for me, but today, it's like she's picking me apart.

"Mads, I was with him for a little over a year, I think I should be allowed to cry over him," I told her even though I didn't want to.

"Well, try not to," she corrected herself.

There were no promises. Especially since I have to see him in about 10 minutes. But thank God we had NO classes together or else I'd break down.


	2. Chapter 2

"Can we please talk?"

Dammit. I had gone ALL day without seeing him. For some reason our paths didn't cross. Maybe he went opposite ways of me so he wouldn't have to see me, I don't know. But now as I'm waiting in front of school for Mads and Char, I'm met with his stupid brown eyes that I once fawned over.

I didn't want to, I really didn't, but we didn't talk much yesterday. After Courtney told me she saw him with another girl at Sierra Canyon's football game, she asked someone who knew the girl who the guy was and they answered her boyfriend, I lost my mind, confronted him about him, yelled some more all while only letting him get a few words in. He didn't deny it, though. So I walked away, livid, and got drunk. And then went home and cried.

And Courtney wouldn't lie to me because she's one of my best friends! I mean, what were the chances that MY EXTREMELY CLOSE AND TRUSTWORTHY friend would see my boyfriend and some other girl at the game?! God definitely wanted me to know!

"What do you want, Taylor? Don't you have somewhere to be?" I asked him, "Maybe with another girl?"

He shook his head and then took the liberty to take a seat right next to me as if I let him. I gave him a disgusting look and picked up my binder that he was almost sitting on and moved it to the other side.

"Can you please not yell?" he asks of me and I really can't make any promises. "It's really not what it seems like. Aubrey... she's not my girlfriend. She's just a friend."

Oh please. "A friend?" I scoffed, "Oh I'm sure. I'm sure she's just a friend. I mean, why else would you lie about going to the football game?"

He shrugged, "Because you wouldn't be happy about it. It was a bye week for us and I wanted to check out the competition and I knew you wouldn't want to come and I don't know, I just went with some friends."

Bullshit. Bullshit. Bullshit. "Fuck you. You've been dating that girl for three whole fucking months. Three months, Taylor?! Who does that?!" It's probably common, I know, but I never, ever would have suspected it from him. We've had our fair share of issues, but cheating was never one of them.

"Gabriella," he turned his whole body towards me and tried to get me with his puppy eyes, "it wasn't three months. It was a stupid mistake. I love you. You're the only one I care about. I want to make this work with you."

I don't think I could believe him. I just... I can't. "Then why would Courtney tell me it was three months? Are the people she found this out from lying?"

"Yes!"

Yeah, right. "Oh please, Taylor. This is all bullshit."

"Why would you believe some stranger over me? I'm not denying something happened because I want to be truthful and honest and I want to move past it, but it wasn't three months. It wasn't an ongoing relationship. You're the only one I love, Gabs."

I want to believe him. I really do. But my gut was just telling me that everything Courtney told me was true. That him and this girl met at some party in the summer and he got her number and from there, it just escalated. Since they weren't in school, no one really knew anything about it. Plus, this girl is from Chatsworth. It's some time away from Calabasas. It's not like we all know each other. So I believed Courtney.

"No, if you loved me you would have never, ever let anything like that happen. People who love each other don't cheat on one another. They just don't."

He shook his head and looked at the ground. "It was stupid. It was so stupid. And I'm begging you to just find it in your heart to forgive me. If you love me, you'll forgive me."

"Hell no," I tell him, standing up, "you are not turning this around on me."

"I'm not trying to!" he argued, standing up as well, "but I am really sorry, Gabs. I just want to go back to months ago when we were the happiest. I miss those times. I miss just being carefree and hanging out and doing absolutely nothing."

I couldn't think about all the good times right now. I couldn't.

"Tell me you don't love me anymore and I'll walk away," he challenged me, "tell me and I'll leave you alone."

I couldn't tell him that at this exact moment. But I was so mad at him. "You fucking ruined me!" I turned around to face him after trying not to for the past few things he's said. "You ripped out my heart and stomped on it. You were my life. I was so madly in love with you. And I hate you so much. I hate you so much for this. You... you ruined me."

Tears were flowing. They were flowing and I couldn't stop them. And he was trying to wipe them away and give me a hug, but I couldn't. I backed away, grabbed my binder and my purse from the bench and tried to wipe my tears away but it was no use because a new set closely followed.

I saw Char come out of the building and I never felt more happy seeing her. I shook my head one last time at Taylor and walked past him and right to Char. She put her arm over my shoulder and led me to the car. This is what I needed right now. My best friend.

And I cried and cried and cried. This day sucked.

* * *

"You sure you're going to be okay?" Char asked as she pulled into my driveway.

She couldn't stay because she had to go pick up her brother from school and Madison ended up going with her friend to her house so I was all alone. With my thoughts. And I'll be okay. I'm not suicidal. I'm just heartbroken.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll be fine," I tell her before closing the door. She rolled down the window to make sure once again that I was. "I am. I think I cried it all out. I'm fine. I'll call you later, okay?"

I was so sick of crying. It not only hurt but it was embarrassing. Char understood completely, but I still didn't want to. I can't believe I yelled at him at school like that. Actually, I can. He deserved it. I mean, a girlfriend for three fucking months? He would blow me off sometimes, but I NEVER thought it could be anything like that. I was so naive. Maybe it's because it didn't even seem like his friends knew. That girl and I go to two different schools, miles apart. So, of course he got away with it. I assume we don't have any mutual friends or anything like that. The girl Courtney talked to was a friend of that girl and Courtney is one of my dearest friends so I guess maybe we do, but eh. I'm so over it. I don't want to talk to him, look at him, be next to him.

"Are you okay?"

I snapped out of my thoughts and saw Troy Bolton standing right in front of me. What? I looked around and saw that I wasn't even on my porch. I was still on m driveway and I was being stupid and weird. I was literally just standing here. Doing nothing. But thinking stupid things.

"What?" I snapped out of it, "Um, yeah, I'm fine."

He gave me a small smile, "Are you sure? You've been standing here for, like, 2 minutes not doing... anything."

Oh so he was watching me? Okay, I don't want to make it sound creepy or lustful. He does live across the street after all. "Yeah, um, I tend to space out. I'm fine, though. Thanks."

But it didn't seem like I was going to be off that easy. "Are you sure? You seem..."

Ha. I forgot I've been crying for the past 10 minutes. My eyes are probably so red and puffy, I probably have mascara running down my face. He didn't even finish his sentence before I started laughing. I was laughing as I grabbed my little compact mirror from my purse and yep, it's exactly how I pictured it in my mind. Well I didn't have too much mascara, just big, puffy red eyes. It was not a cute look and I should be totally embarrassed right now. Which I am.

And now he was looking at me weirdly as if I was the weirdest girl ever and he regrets coming over here to ask me if I'm okay.

"I'm fine," I say between laughs, "you probably think I'm the biggest mess ever. Crying on a Wednesday afternoon, drunk on a Tuesday..."

He's letting out a laugh now. "No," he says, but corrects himself, "Well, kind of."

I put the mirror back in my purse and wipe my face as hard as I possibly could. It probably won't reduce swelling or the redness of my eyes but I at least took off most of the mascara I had on my face. "It's not all for nothing, I promise. I'm fine."

I just really wanted to get out of his sight. This guy was the most gorgeous guy I think I've ever seen and he was my neighbor. And I definitely don't want him remembering me like this. I look so horrible. I envy those people that can look good during and after they cry. Because I sure as hell didn't.

"Are you sure?"

No. I'm not fine. I'm not fine at all. But why would I tell him that? I barely know the guy. "Are you not going to believe me until I say, I'm not fine?"

He laughed and shrugged his shoulders, "I hate seeing people cry."

I give him a weak smile. It was sweet, but he doesn't owe me anything. "Don't worry about it."

"Look, I'm going to go inside my house and probably watch an hour of Spongebob, but I don't think I'd be able to enjoy it knowing the girl across the street  
is either a, sitting in her house, not fine at all or b, crying some more. I know I'll never know, but if you can just make your lie a little more believable..."

Wow this guy is actually making me crack a genuine smile. A real smile. And Spongebob? Um. One of my favorite shows of ALL time. "Okay, I'm not fine at all. My boyfriend of a year has been cheating on me and I had no idea. And now I'm a mess. And I'm probably going to go in my house and not cry, but eat  
a tub full of ice cream and look for the cheesiest movie on TV. Okay?"

He smiled back at me and backed away a bit. "Thank you," he says before turning around. He's walking down my driveway, but then turns around to tell me one last thing, "if you want some company or just want to watch Spongebob, you know where to find me."

No. I can't be feeling butterflies in my stomach. What the fuck is this? I quickly wiped the smile that was off my face and headed inside. I washed my face, got into some comfy clothes and grabbed the Ben & Jerry's phish food from the freezer. Yes, I was totally doing what they did in movies. And I didn't care.

Maybe watching Spongebob with Troy wouldn't be so bad, but it would just feel like making a move and I don't ever make the first move.

* * *

"Gabriella!"

I woke up to my 7 year old brother hovering over me saying my name repeatedly. Ugh, can't a girl take a nap around here?! "What, Mason? What do you want?"

I love my brother. To death. But for some reason, he's ALWAYS the one waking me up from naps so I kind of hate him a bit for that. Like, always. If I don't wake up on my own, it's him waking me up. And usually, for no reason. Just to talk or play.

"Dad wants to know if you want to go to dinner with me and him."

Oh. Okay, so it's a legitimate reason. I got up and looked at the clock on the TV. 5:30. Oh shit. I've been asleep for almost 2 hours. Oops. I sat up completely and thought about it. I was hungry. But wait. why? "Where are mom and Madison?"

Mason shrugged, but he gave me an answer so I don't know why he did. "Madison is at Nicole's and mom said she was taking grandma to church."

Oh, right. Wednesdays. It's always weird around here on Wednesdays. My mom cooks almost every night except for Wednesdays so we're either all on our own or we go to dinner. I forgot about this. But eh, I just woke up from my nap, give me a break.

"Sure," I tell him, "I'm hungry."

He smiled at me and jumped for joy. Don't tell Madison, but I'm pretty sure I'm his favorite sister. "Yay! Dad said you get to pick the place."

Mason was my half brother and he was the cutest thing in the whole world. Seriously. When my mom married Stephen, my step dad, 7 months later, they found out they were having a baby and I couldn't wait. I think I was more excited than them. And even more when I found out it was going to be a boy.

It's not like a half brother, half sister relationship, though. We're brother and sister. Full on. I love him as much as I love Madison.

"Okay, thanks."

So 40 minutes later, we're eating at Sugarfish, a sushi place. Thank God they loved sushi and Japanese food because I was so in the mood for this. And it's definitely hitting the spot. Like, completely.

"So how was school today?" my dad asked me as he reached over for one of my sushi rolls. "Didn't you have that test in math?"

I nodded since I couldn't talk because I had just shoved a roll in my mouth. "Yeah, and I think I did well on it," I told him after swallowing. Which was very surprising given the circumstances, but I think I might have gotten an A on it. The highest a B.

"Way to go," he tells me, "listen about yesterday, were you okay? You were kind of just... out there a little more than you usually are."

Ha. No. I wasn't okay. I was sobering up. I was buzzed. But I couldn't tell him that. I guess I have to tell him. Truth be told, I like telling him more things than my mom because my mom is way more dramatic and over the top. He's so chill and laid back.

"Taylor and I broke up."

He didn't say anything and Mason was busy digging into his chicken teriyaki that he loves so much. I don't think he saw it coming because he's very quiet.

"You did?"

That's all he was going to say? "Yesterday during lunch."

He put his chopsticks down and took a drink of his coke. "Oh, what happened? I mean, you guys were planning that trip to Big Bear and that seemed to be going well and stuff."

Ha Big Bear. I forgot all about that. No fucking way am I going now. Well, I still can, but he can't. I'll just go with all his friends and with my friends and he'll be left out. "I don't want to say in front of you know who," I tell him, but I know Mason's not even listening, "he just did a pretty shady thing."

He nodded, understanding what I was trying to say. "And there's no way you can forgive him?"

I shake my head. I really don't think I could. Not now anyway. "I can't even look at him. I'm so mad at him."

"You know, I loved that fact that you were dating a football star simply so I could go to the games and be able to cheer someone on. But if I'm being honest, I think you can do much better. Not that he wasn't a great guy to us and to you from what we saw, but you just need someone with more drive."

Ugh. I completely agree. Now I'm over analyzing everything and I realized that Taylor is only half the things I want in a guy. He has passion and he has drive... for football. But not for life. What if he breaks his leg tomorrow? He needs a back up plan. He needs options. He can't just reply on football.

"I'm realizing that now," I tell him before scooping up another roll and dipping it in soy sauce, "It just sucks. Did I do something wrong?"

My dad shook his head and cleared away his empty plate, "Don't say that. No one ever does anything wrong to justify cheating. There's someone out there for everyone. Your guy just hasn't come yet."

I smiled at him. He had the best advice. I truly think him and my mom are soulmates and that it was fate. 12 years later, and they're more in love today than they were when they got married. So I believe in it. I believe in soulmates. I believe you have that one special person.

And I just want him to come to me already. I hate being single.


	3. Chapter 3

I can't blame my family for going to the football game. They love football. It's our school. And it's one of the biggest games of the year. So of course they went. Everyone went. Every single person I know. And I'm stuck here at home doing absolutely nothing but hanging with Chloe, our 2 year old Golden.

And this bitch had me wrapped around her little paws. I couldn't ever say no to her.

So since I can't, I'm stuck walking her because that's what she wanted. The little smartie pants went to where we keep her leash and she grabbed it and dropped it on my lap. I've never seen her do that before so I was impressed. Impressed enough to give in and take her on a walk.

I guess it was good. I haven't exercised in a while so it felt nice. It was a nice day and there was a nice breeze and Chloe was so pretty so whatever. I'm going to have fun with this.

"Hey."

I turned to my right and saw Troy standing there next to his car. Well, pretty much getting out of it.

Oh. Crap. I was so into listening to my music on my phone, I didn't even realize we were already back at home. Wow. We went up and down the blocks and circled a couple and now we're back. Ha. I was so into the walk.

"Hi," I tell him, taking out my headphones. They weren't even loud so I could have kept them on and still listened to him but that would probably be rude. And then Chloe got out of my grip and jumped on him and he was more than happy to pet her. "You're not at the game?"

It was weird seeing him. I mean, this was a HUGE game. And it was at our school because the stadium was bigger. Everyone went. EVERYONE.

He looked up at me and looked a bit confused, "Nah, why would I go?"

I shrugged as if it wasn't obvious. "Um, it's the biggest game of the year, pretty much."

He got up from petting Chloe and dusted off the hairs she left on his black pants. "I'm not into football too much. And I don't even go to any of the schools so I don't see the point."

What? "You don't go to Sierra?"

He laughed and went back to his car to grab his backpack before closing it, "Nah, I go to Agoura."

Oh wow. This whole time, well these past few mornings that I've seen him come out of his house for school, I thought he was driving him and his sister to Sierra Canyon. But nope. Agoura. "Really?"

"Yeah, really," he says, "We didn't move far. We just moved neighborhoods."

Oh. Maybe I should have paid more attention the night of dinner. I'm sure they discussed where he went to school and stuff. "Oh."

"But yeah, I see why you would think that, everyone's at that game. Even people from my school." Yeah, see. EVERYONE GOES.

I rolled my eyes. Not at him. But at the whole thing. I hated football. I hated Taylor. "It's not even a big deal. I am so glad I don't have to go anymore and pretend to be interested."

He threw his backpack over his shoulder and laughed a bit. "Yeah, now you can stay home on a Friday night and walk your dog."

Ha ha ha. I smirked at him with my eyes AND my mouth. It's possible. "It's not my fault everyone's at that stupid game. But whatever, Chloe's the coolest dog ever so I'm not complaining."

He smiled at went down to pet her once more. "I'm kidding. I don't have any plans for that exact same reason."

"We're the losers that didn't go to the game."

He laughed and got back up, petting her only a few times so she wouldn't shed anymore all over him. "Well then do you want to grab a bite or something? We can turn this Friday around, I know this really good Mexican restaurant."

The minute he said Mexican food, I was in. Plus, what else am I going to do? "Give me 5 minutes," I tell him.

Is this day really going to turn around and be... fun? We'll see.

* * *

"I don't even care if the food is good at this point, these chips and salsa are enough," I tell Troy as I grabbed a couple and dip them all the way in salsa and stuff them into my mouth.

I've never been to this place. It's a little outside of Calabasas and it's not a hole in the wall, but it's not fancy. It's just... a restaurant. And the chips are so damn good. But the salsa is even better. I just want to eat all of them. And take some home.

"I'm glad you like it," he laughed.

Whoops. Am I making a fool of myself.. for the millionth time in front of him? "Sorry," I tell him, scooting away the basket, "I just really love chips and salsa."

He shakes his head as if he's telling me it's okay. "I see you're feeling better."

It was a discreet way of asking me and I appreciated it because I didn't want to talk about it. I didn't want to get into with a man I barely know. Why would I give him personal details about my relationship? Kind of... weird. "Yeah, I'm okay."

I wasn't 100% but I was doing better. And it had only been 2 days or so. So that was good. I'm making a lot of progress. I think the talk with my dad really helped. We sat there all of dinner just talking about it. And then I went home and I had to tell my mom and to my surprise, she echoed all of my dad's sentiments and it just really helped me. I can't dwell on it. It's a high school relationship. It probably wouldn't have worked out regardless.

"Good," he tells me.

And then I heard my phone buzz. It was a text from my mom. And she was telling me to just come to the game. Everyone was there. They were even sitting with their new friends, the Bolton's. Ha. Little did they know what I was doing.

"Everything okay?"

I put my phone down and nodded. "Yeah, yeah, my mom's just asking if I changed my mind and wanna go. I guess they're with your parents."

He laughed and reached for a couple of chips, "Oh yeah, they really hit it off. I guess our parents bonded over having us so young."

I didn't say anything. I just sort of chuckled and reached for some more chips.

"What?'

I finished chewing my chips and swallowed and took a sip of my horchata before telling him all about my family. "Only my mom had me young. Stephen's my step dad."

He looked confused. And it was understandable. "Oh, I didn't know. You call him dad and um, you guys actually kind of look alike."

Ha yeah, we do. "Which is the weirdest part of all of this. But yeah, he's my stepdad, but really, my dad. My dad walked out on us when I was 4 and Madison was 3. And yeah. Then we added Mason to the mix."

Troy looked intrigued. Like he wanted to know more. And eventually he did ask to know more. "So really, he's the only dad you've known? How old were you when he came in the picture?"

I nodded. He IS my dad. I don't care if it's not biological, he is. "When I was about 5, we were at the grocery store and I snuck away but I thought my mom was watching me, and it would be funny, but she wasn't. And I got lost in the aisles and this man came up to me asking what was wrong and I cried to him and he picked me up and took me to the front and alerted them and then my mom came and got me and the rest was history."

"Oh, wow. And you weren't scared of this stranger?"

I laughed. "Not really, no. It's so weird. I was only 5 and I don't even remember anything that happened then but I remember every inch of that day."

"Well, yeah, it's the day you met him which changed your life," he tells me. And I couldn't agree more.

"Exactly."

"And you've never tried to get in contact with your real dad?" he asks me as I'm grabbing some more chips. This was a topic I didn't mind talking about. It was personal, but I didn't feel like it was personal. So I was okay with it. Plus, he seems really nice. And like he wouldn't judge.

I shook my head after eating some more chips. I was done. I couldn't have any more. I pushed them away and dusted off my hands of the salt. "I haven't, but he has. I just, I have no interest in a man who would walk out on two kids and the mother of this two kids. Yes, they were young, but he just left completely. And I forgive. I just don't forget so I don't know. I'm not interested. I have a dad."

"That's pretty cool of him. Dating someone with two daughters."

It was one of the reasons I admired him so much. "Which sounds crazy to me now because it's not like we were all grown up and he's been through his fair share of divorces or has kids of his own. He was 26 years old. So young. But yeah, 12 years later, they're stronger than ever."

I didn't want to talk about this anymore. Ever since I met him, I feel like all we've done is talk about me.

"So your parents had you young?"

He nodded, "Yeah, my mom was 21 and my dad was 22 and they were together for maybe 2 years. They were super young, but they made it work."

I only really spent an hour or so with his parents, but they seemed really nice and what I did see or hear out of them when I wasn't zoning out, I think I'd really like them. I do remember he had his arm around her the whole time which was sweet to see. They seemed really happy.

Oh yeah! And I remember seeing them go for a walk yesterday, hand in hand, around the neighborhood. So cute.

We ordered our food and while waiting for it, we covered a few light topics. He moved here because they just wanted a new house. And fell in love with the one across the street from us. He goes to Agoura High which isn't his home school from where he lives now, but he didn't want to leave his senior year. It's not far at all, though. He only has one sister who's Madison's age. And he plays soccer. Um. My favorite sport. Well, after tennis. But I do LOVE going to  
high school soccer games. Even professional games. They're so much fun to watch. Way better than stupid football.

"I got it," Troy tells me a little later as he picks up the bill.

Um no. "No, tell me what I owe," I tell him as I take out my wallet from my purse and begin to open it to see what cash I have. I have a 20 and a few fives.

But he's shaking his head and putting the bill face down away from me so I couldn't see. "No, don't worry about it. I got it." I don't want him to get it because it almost seems like a... date.

I know he's not even imagining things like that, but I'm a girl and that's what we do.

And then we're back in the car, and all of a sudden I feel really down. I know it wasn't a date, but him paying kind of felt like one for a minute and it just made me think of Taylor and all the fun dates we've been on. And the romantic ones. And it honestly got me really depressed. Super depressed.

I just sat there looking out the window and barely answered any of the questions he was asking me. I missed Taylor even though I shouldn't. At all.

"You missed the turn," I told him, which was about the only thing I told him this whole car ride home.

He nodded as if he knew, "yeah, um, I just want to show you something."

Um, weird. "What?"

He smiled at me and then turned up the radio high enough so we wouldn't be able to talk.

Okay what was going on? He drove for another five minutes and then pulled into a neighborhood. It was a familiar neighborhood. One of my friends lives here, but I just didn't know what we were doing. There were only houses here. What could he possibly show me? Oh my gosh is he going to kill me?

Then he pulled up to this two story house which was nice, but I still didn't understand. "Come on," he tells me unbuckling his seat belt.

I seriously don't know what's going on, but I unbuckle mine and slowly get out of the car. The neighborhood doesn't freak me out. It's a nice neighborhood, I'm just really, really confused as to what's happening.

And now we're standing on the porch of this house and Troy's knocking on the door and we're waiting. And then finally, this girl opens it. This pretty brunette.

"Troy!" she exclaims as she goes in for a hug. And now they're hugging.

Troy backs away and properly says hi to her. "Sorry for coming unannounced," he tells me, "but um, this is Gabriella. And Gabriella, this is Erin."

The brunette girl turns to me and gives me a warm smile and I can tell she's not his girlfriend because what girl would like her boyfriend showing to their house with another girl? Not many. I definitely wouldn't. Ha.

"Hi," she tells me all sweetly.

I try to be as sweet as possible, too, but I'm still really confused. "Hi."

"Can we come in and see the puppies?"

Erin shook her head and moved to the side, "Oh that's why you're here?" she let out a small laugh, "but yeah, come in. They're all in the back."

I'm still confused, but I walk in and Troy walks in after me and we're just following this girl through her house and we get to her backroom and there's a huge box full of little puppies. Little golden retriever puppies. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh.

My eyes must have lit up and I must have started shaking or something because Troy was asking me if I'll be okay. Yeah, I'll be okay, but I'm OBSESSED with golden puppies. OBSESSED. Golden retrievers are my favorite dogs in the world. Literally the whole world.

"Oh my gosh, they're SO cute."

And then Erin picks one up and gives it to me and while I'm playing with it, they go in the kitchen and talk for a few minutes and come back and now we're all playing with puppies.

We were probably there for a good hour and I was SO sad to leave. I really didn't want to leave. We were in the middle of planning to get Chloe pregnant and we were so excited for her to have puppies, but it won't be for a while so I'm SO happy I got to see these cuties. And experience it. They're SO cute.

I can't even get over how cute they are. They were only a month old. Ah.

Seriously, Troy must have been so excited to get home because the whole car ride home I was talking about how cute they are, how when Chloe was a puppy and I was telling him stories. So he was probably annoyed and was happy we were parked and home and getting out of his car.

"Feeling better?" he asks me as we're standing at the end of his driveway.

Huh? "What?" I asked, throwing my purse over my shoulder.

He shrugged, "After dinner, you just seemed... distraught. Sad. So I don't know, you said you loved puppies and your favorite dog was a golden retriever and my friend's dog just so happened so have puppies so I thought it'd be fun and it'd get your mind off of things. I don't know, make you feel better."

No. Fucking. Way.

He seriously took me to see the puppies because he thought I was sad and it'd make me feel better? I seriously just thought he wanted to see them and it was something else to do on this Friday night. Oh my gosh. That was SO sweet. The fact that he realized I was feeling sad. Well, I think anyone could have realized it, but the fact that he wanted to make me feel better? Ah, it was so nice. He's SO nice.

"Are you psychic or something?"

He laughed and then shook his head, "Maybe you're just really easy to read."

I didn't think I was, though. Taylor always used to tell me he can never tell what I'm thinking. But I guess with this whole situation I can't keep it in and it shows on my face. "Well thank you, that was really nice of you. I actually did forget about everything and I am still thinking about those puppies."

"Good."

And then we say our goodbyes and I walk away smiling so big. It turned out to be one of the best nights, ever. And I don't know if that's a good or bad thing.


	4. Chapter 4

"So what did you do last night?" Char asked me as we situated ourselves at Cici's, a diner in our neck of the woods, the next morning.

She was looking at me as if she knew and it was weird. I did hang out with Troy last night but the way she asked was if something happened between us and they didn't?

"Yeah, what'd you do last night?" Our friend Nicole echoed her question. Nicole was part of our clique and one of my very best friends. Love, love, love her.

I opened my menu and ignored their question for a minute because the service here is excellent that a waitress will come before I know it to take our order so I want to know what to order before getting lost in conversation. Once I decided on what to get, I closed my menu, pushed it to the side and gave them my undivided attention.

"Okay, what do you know?" I asked them.

Nicole put down her menu and smirked at me. "Clarissa didn't go to the game because she's in the same predicament as you. Hates Toby, who of course plays. But she went to the after party and she told us she saw you at some Mexican restaurant with this REALLY hot guy."

How did I not see her there? She has the loudest voice, how did I miss her? "Of course she told you."

Char laughed and closed her menu. "You hung out with Troy?"

I shrugged my shoulders as if it wasn't a big deal. "I ran into him since he is my neighbor, I see him almost everyday and I don't know. We both weren't at the game and we just decided to grab dinner. It was fun. The food was SO good, guys. We have to go. You'll love it."

Charlotte and Nicole looked at each other and kind of smiled as if something else was going on.

"What?"

Char turned back to me and just gave me a little smile. "I feel like you can't be friends with someone that hot."

Is she implying I'm interested? "Oh my gosh. Taylor and I broke up FOUR days ago. I still think about it all the time. I am in no way interested or am evening thinking about dating him. What the heck?"

Nicole put her arm over Char as if to stop talking. "What she means is, did you have fun? Did it get you out of your funk at all?"

I smiled almost too soon. Aww crap. Now they're going to think I'm interested which I'm not. But I'm not going to deny he's incredibly hot and seems to be really nice. "I did, actually. I had the best Mexican food and then we went to his friends house and hung out with golden retriever PUPPIES! PUPPIES!"

I'm such a freak, but I was literally still thinking about how cute they were. I mean, I went to bed last night thinking about them! I'm crazy obsessed.

"He took you to play with puppies?"

I grabbed my orange juice the waitress just put down and wasted no time sticking a straw in there and drinking about half of it. "Yep, and it turned out to be a really fun Friday night. I didn't even think about the game!"

I left out the detail that, that's exactly why he took me. It's weird. He knows I broke up with my boyfriend who's on the football team but he doesn't know details and yet, it seems like he does. It seems like he was doing everything to take my mind off of things.

Nicole looked over at Char and just smiled. "I give it, like, a few weeks."

"Excuse me!"

"What?"

"In a few weeks, I'll probably still be torn up about this. Seriously guys, it was platonic and it didn't even cross my mind what it'd be like if it was an actual date or anything like that," I tell her. And it was the truth. He's incredibly good looking, but no. I didn't think anything like that with him.

Nicole shrugged it off and drank some of her hot chocolate. Char, on the other hand, didn't seem to want to drop it. "Come on. Hooking up with him would not only be the ultimate revenge because he's so much hotter than Taylor, but it'll totally make you forget about him as well." She was all about revenge hooks ups and having an innocent fling afterward. Whatever, it may have gotten her over to ex but that's not how my mind functions. I wish it did, though.

Okay, Troy wasn't SO much hotter. Maybe like a little bit hotter. "I don't need revenge. I just need him out of my life."

"Well, it's a good thing you guys don't have any classes together. You really just need to focus on school, applying to colleges and all of that."

I agreed one hundred percent with Nicole. Of course there's going to be days where I miss him and think about him, but I just can't talk to him. I don't want to talk to him. Or even see him. I need to focus on myself. Get ready for my future. And that doesn't involve Taylor whatsoever.

"All I really care about right now are my chocolate chip pancakes."

Yep. It was the truth. Well, I also cared about the bacon. I can't forget about the bacon.

* * *

"Smells delicious, what are you making?"

My mom popped up as she took what looked like banana nut bread out of the oven and placed it on the counter with a big smile on her face. She loved baking and cooking and anything that made her stay in the kitchen.

"What you're smelling is banana nut bread," she tells me taking off her oven mitts, "but your dad is barbequing some ribs outside. I'm making a pasta salad right now and the Bolton's are bringing over some corn and maybe some salad."

The Bolton's? They're coming to our Sunday night dinner?

"You invited them?"

Not that it was a bad thing. Sunday night dinners always encountered different family friends and family, but most of the time it was just us five and I liked it that way the best. But today, especially, I just wanted it to be us.

My mom turned around from pouring some pasta into some boiling water, "Is that not okay?"

I shrugged. I didn't feel like getting into it and telling her I really just wanted to be around family right now. "No, it's okay. The question just came out. They're cool."

Really, they are. I just... whatever. There's no use in complaining about it.

And 30 minutes later, the Bolton's are walking through our door. Jack is holding a bottle of wine, Rebecca is carrying a bowl full of salad, and Madison's trailing behind them with some corn. But Troy... he's missing.

"Troy?" my mom asks.

Rebecca shook her head as she put down the bowl on the counter. "Oh, he had plans. A friend's birthday lunch/dinner. Whenever we get together for dinner, it seems like he's always trying to get out of them, but I promise it's just a coincidence."

Oh yeah. The day I met him he wasn't at the Bolton/Montez dinner until later that evening. Hm.

My mom laughed it off. "If you think I think he's avoiding us, no. They're teenagers. They make plans every five minutes."

Rebecca and my mom became fast friends. Last night, they went for a walk together with our dogs. And I didn't mind, my mom didn't really have any friends in the neighborhood except for Courtney's mom so it was nice. And Rebecca seemed like such a sweet lady. The whole family looked sweet.

And then an hour later, we were all outside enjoying the beautiful Cali weather and the delicious ribs my dad made. They were finger-licking good. And I wish all these people weren't here so I could have them all. It was actually a fun evening. Jack is incredibly funny. Rebecca is sweet. And Camille, she has the most flawless face that you can't help but stare and feel envious of her. And she's so nice. Not only my sister, who's her age, gets along with her but I do, too!

Shortly after that, Madison, Camille and I went inside and plopped down on the couches in the living room because The Real Housewives of Atlanta were on and we did not want to miss that. It was mine and Madison's guilty pleasure and it so happened to be Camille's, too.

"Gabs, did you see um..." Madison was looking down at her phone and I know what she was trying to tell me. I saw the text message Char sent us.

I nodded my head, "Yeah."

Char sent us a text message of a picture of the girl Taylor was dating behind my back. I didn't care to know anything about this girl, I just wanted to move on from the situation, but she asked Courtney and then Char stalked her and found pictures of her and to make my life miserable, she sent them.

Okay, not to make me miserable, I just made the mistake of wondering out loud around them what the girl looked like.

"She's really pretty," I tell her, scrolling down the DVR list to find the last recorded episode of housewives. I recorded like three shows tonight so it wasn't the first one on the list. "You can think that, I really don't care."

Madison looked at the picture again and kind of shrugged. "Obviously you're prettier."

Ha. Well, she's my sister, she say to say that. I looked over at Camille and she looked confused and I'm sure she had no idea what was going on. Madison gave me a look as if she was asking permission to tell her and I sort of just smiled and nodded and I guess she was because right away she explained.

"...and I guess this is the girl," Madison told her showing her the picture after she explained everything, "I mean, yeah, she's pretty. But come on. She's so... I don't know, average looking."

"No way," Camille snatched the phone out of my sister's hand and brought it closer to her face, "I know this girl. She dated my cousin for a couple of months She's so nice!"

Madison looked at me and I looked back at her and she took her phone back and blushed a little bit. "Oh, sorry. I mean, she's really pretty."

Camille laughed and shook her head, "Don't worry about it. They were only together for like 4 months or so, I think."

I don't know Camille very well so who knows if I should believe her. Maybe Taylor played both of us. Maybe she didn't know he had a girlfriend of almost a year at that time. Or maybe she did. Who knows. I'll never know or care to know. This girl doesn't matter to me. It's mean because I don't know her but I don't like her. I don't know if it's reasonable or not, but I just don't. I don't care for her. I don't like her. I don't ever want to see her. She doesn't matter.

"Look, her and Taylor can go live happily ever after if they want to, I don't care," I tell them. I really don't. I dislike her and I HATE him.

Camille once again looked uncomfortable. Maybe I should soften my voice a bit and or smile, but how could I smile when we're in conversation about this girl who was with my boyfriend for three months? I couldn't.

"Sorry, I just hate thinking about him."

"Don't worry about it," Camille tells me, "it's okay to be mad about it. It happened, what? Less than a week ago?"

I nodded my head and looked down at my phone. October 14th. 7 days away from our 13 month anniversary. Ha. So stupid. "Yeah."

We slowly got out of that conversation though, and it was only Madison and Camille talking. About some cute guy that went to Camille's school. I was too busy texting Char and Nicole in a group text about Mike Weller's birthday party coming up. Not only was Mike Weller's annual party that he started in the 10th grade the best party of the whole school year, but everyone went. And that means Taylor. Last time this year, we were barely starting our relationship and we had the best time there and everyone was telling us how cute we were blah blah blah. This year? I'm dreading it. But Mike Weller and I grew up together. We're like brother and sister. Our parents are best friends. We were literally in diapers playing together because our moms were friends and still are to this day. And not going to his party seemed... strange. I had to go. And you know what? Taylor might not even go since he knows I'll be there. Or he will go. And I'll try to avoid him. It'll be fine, right? I'm sure it will. He had a big ass house and there will be tons of people and everyone will be having the time of their life. It'll be okay. By then, I think I'll be a lot better about this whole situation... maybe.

"Gabs?"

I looked up from my phone and Madison was standing over me. And so was Camille kind of. I sat up and gave her my full attention. "What?"

"Can you please come?"

Huh? I was confused. "Come where?"

Madison rolled her eyes. Oops. Was I supposed to be paying attention to what she said? "Across the street. Camille's going to homecoming on Friday and she wants to get an opinion on the dress. And you have an eye for fashion. If it's not as great as she thought, she's going shopping tomorrow."

"Yeah, tomorrow's really the only day I can go get a new dress if I decide not to wear the one I have," she chimes in.

I was in. I LOVED dresses. And anything having to do with school dances. Plus I probably wasn't going to go to my winter formal this year so I could live vicariously through a sophomore. "Let's go."

We go across the street and I realize I've never been in their home before. Not that I should've been, but I don't know. It's really nice. And I love the layout. It's one story, but it's wide and it's long and has SO much room.

Before we go to her room, she takes us to the kitchen because she wants a water and we see Troy sitting in the living room right by it with some girl and a guy. And they're just watching TV. A movie, I think.

"Oh hey," Camille calls out to them and instead of going to the kitchen like she said, she goes to the living room. And Madison and I are sort of just standing there. "I've missed you, Meg."

I'm assuming she's telling the girl that. Yep, because they're now hugging.

Troy, who has his back to us, turns around and sees us and gets up almost instantly. "Hey guys."

And almost in unison, Mads and I said hey in return and we inch forward, but we don't sit down or anything like Camille just has. But it doesn't look like she's getting comfortable which is good because I just want to see her dress and get out of here. I'm beyond tired. Even though it's only 8.

"Oh guys, this is Megan and that's Pete," she tells us pointing to this other attractive guy on the couch. Seriously. This house is infested with good looking people. It's totally not fair.

We say hi to them and she introduces them to us and then after a minute or so, she gets up and we all go to her room and she tries on her dress while Mads and I wait patiently on her bed. And she comes out and she looks flawless. Homecoming is different for every school. My cousin goes to Agoura so I know homecoming is a little more formal at their school and it's a bigger deal than at our schools so this dress is perfect for it. It's maroon and knee length and body hugging and at the neck it has gold and it was just perfection. Why she needed a second opinion is beyond me.

"You're keeping it," I simply tell her.

And that was that. And about 10 minutes later after she tells us what jewelry and heels she's planning on wearing with it, along with the hairstyle, I'm getting ready to leave. Madison's staying because they're going to watch something on Netflix, I don't know. New friend stuff.

The way their house was laid out, I didn't have to see Troy and his friends in the living room which was good because I didn't want to have to awkwardly say goodbye to them. They wouldn't even see me walking out. Hear me? Maybe. But definitely not see me. But when I opened the door to leave, I literally almost ran into Troy as he was on the porch. I guess he was coming in from outside.

Seriously we could have knocked each other down. Okay, not really. But I could have definitely had my body against his.

"Sorry," he laughed it off and scooted back.

I backed away, kind of pulling the door to close it, but left it mildly opened, "It's okay."

Now we were just standing there on the porch. Not awkwardly, but I think we just both felt obligated to. Because just saying that and then leaving would be kind of, I don't know. Not very neighborly?

"Did you like the dress?"

I laughed. I knew he probably didn't care, but it was probably the only thing he could think of saying to me. "Oh yeah, her date will love it."

His small smile disappeared and it made me chuckle a bit because he was getting into protective brother mode. "Which is what I'm afraid of." How sweet.

"It'll be fine," I assure him. But I actually don't know if it'll be. I don't know her all that well. Ha.

He nods his head and then kind of shoves his hands into his pocket and puts one foot up on the step between his driveway and the porch and he's sort of rocking himself back and forth. "How was dinner?"

"Delicious," I tell him, "you missed out."

"I'm bummed," he tells me, taking out one of his hands from his pocket and running it through his hair. "I'll attend the next dinner for sure. And not just at the end for the dessert."

"Yeah, or to sneak me in."

He laughed. Maybe a bit harder than he needed to, but I appreciated it. "Oh, no, you're sneaking me in next time. You owe me."

I did owe him. "Whenever you need me," I tell him, jokingly.

He stops rocking himself and kind of just stands there. I don't know what else there's left to say, really, but he then asks me if I'm doing okay. Char asks me almost every hour of the day and it is frustrating and annoying, but with him, it's different. He doesn't have to ask how I'm doing. He barely knows me. Heck, he doesn't even know the situation and how bad it was. But he IS asking. And that's really sweet of him.

"I'm a lot better," I assure him, "thanks for asking." I really did appreciate it.

He smiled at me and sort of shrugged as if he was saying it was no problem at all. Which technically a question isn't, but I still felt the need to say thanks.

And then there was a small silence so I figured it was my cue to get out of there. "Well, I should get going. I have some homework to finish up for tomorrow and yeah..." I lied. I just didn't want to stand in the cold anymore. Even if conversation wasn't bad.

"Yeah, yeah," he says moving to the side to let me go through. "I'll see you later."

Probably. Since we are neighbors.


	5. Chapter 5

"Um hello?! Aren't we going out for milkshakes and hamburgers?" Chase Keller, another one of my very best friends, asks me as he barges into my room Monday afternoon as I'm laying on my bed.

I look up at him from my math book and just crack a smile. "Hold on, I'm almost done with these problems."

He rolls his eyes all dramatic and goes to my window seats and lays there, opening the blinds slightly which makes light project into my room. "Gabriella, I'm starving!"

"I know, I know," I tell him jotting down the answer to the problem I just finished, "I'm seriously almost done. Two problems."

Out of the corner of my eye, I see him peeking through the blinds a bit and then going on his phone. And within two minutes, I'm done. I close my book, stack it up with my notebooks and put it on my nightstand. I grab my boots from the floor and slip them onto my feet and get up and go to my dresser to grab my purse along with my chapstick. I was starving too which was why I asked if he wanted to grab some food.

"Ready?"

Chase put his hand up as if he was trying to hear something. I went over to him and looked through the blinds but it didn't seem like anyone was outside talking or anything.

"What?"

He peeked through the blinds some more and then looked over to me with a big smile. "Your neighbor is so fucking hot!"

I rolled my eyes. THIS is what he basically ignored me for? Troy? This is when having a gay best friend sucks. Now he's going to want to sit here and stare at him. Not that I would be oppose to it because he is incredibly good looking, but it's creepy. And I'm sure he'd see us. Which is why I want him to stop.

"I know," I agree with him because it is true, "let's go. Aren't you staaaarvvinggg?"

He turns back and rolls his eyes. "No, you made me wait, now I'm making you wait while I check out your neighbor. Seriously, why aren't you fucking him?"

"Chase!" Oh my gosh. It's so crazy how he could just say things like this to anyone. Well, not anyone, I know I'm his best friend, but still. "Maybe because he's not my boyfriend or anything..."

Again, he rolled his eyes, something he's very good at, and laughed. "Come on, you and Taylor have been broken up for a month. Please tell me you're not still sad over him or so help me God, Gabriella, I will punch you in your face."

"Chase, I'm fine," I tell him but I'm not sure if I am. I mean, Taylor was my life. My first serious boyfriend and I think I got a little too hooked. It's hard to get over someone. I'm fine, I am, but am I over him and ready to date someone else? Not sure. I want to be. I know there's no going back to Taylor, but it's not going to be easy to trust again, that's for sure.

"Seriously, Gabs," he looked through the blinds again, "I think he's the perfect candidate to just get you to move the fuck on."

"No, now come on, let's go!"

He laughs and closed the blinds just a little bit. "What, like you don't sit here and do this?"

I turned around and smirked at him. "No, because I'm not creepy as hell and if I wanted to look at an attractive guy, I'd look at pictures of Ryan Gosling on the internet where no one can see me doing it. And I won't get caught."

He squinted his eyes at me. "Ha ha ha," he pretended to laugh, "The two don't even compare. They're definitely both hot, but so different. Your neighbor's just so... ah. Scrumptious. Rigid. I don't know, he's just fucking attractive."

As if I didn't already know that. "Yes, I know, Chase. Can we please go? I'm starving."

He rolled his eyes yet again and grabbed his phone and hopped off the window seat and nodded his head. "I guess. But if in the next 2 minutes, he takes his shirt off, I'm blaming you."

"Why would he take his shirt off?" I ask him as we're heading out my door and down the stairs, "he's playing with his dog in his front yard."

Chase shrugged and let out what seemed to be a frustrated sigh, "I don't know, Gabriella. Some guys take their shirts off when they play with their dogs."

It seemed like he was just making this up, but whatever.

"Ah, we're going to see him right now! Ha for a second, I thought we could only see him from your window."

I laughed at how ridiculous he sounded at times. But I loved him. Char and Nicole, we all had different tastes. Charlotte was into the surfer types. Nicole was more into the artsy type of guys and I was into athletic guys. Like Chase. Which is why I loved having him around. We'd just check out guys all the time.

But obviously it was just for fun because I had a boyfriend. Now we could do it more freely, but I'd prefer if it wasn't my neighbor because I don't want to take the chance of him hearing us. EVER. That would be absolutely embarrassing.

"You parked right in front of his house? Are you serious?" I whispered to Chase as we walked out of my house.

Chase looked back at me and shrugged. "I came the opposite way. I didn't want to turn around. Come on, it'll be fine."

Ugh. Troy wasn't like my neighbors to the left who we'd see, but wouldn't rally make eye contact or say anything because I don't know. We just never did. I'm friendly with him so I can't just ignore him. I'd feel weird doing that.

We walked across the street and his eyes caught mine before I could catch his which was good because he ended up saying hi first.

"Hey," I tell him.

He was already kind of close to us because his dog had ran out to the patch of grass on the other side of the sidewalk between it and his yard. "Sorry," he tells me, which I'm assuming is because his dog is kind of in the way of me opening the door to Chase's car.

"It's okay," I tell him with a small smile as I get down to pet him. It was an Australian shepherd which was SO freaking adorable.

And before I knew it, Chase was standing right next to me. What? Ugh why wasn't he in his fucking car? I knew exactly what he wanted and now that he had a perfect chance to get introduced to Troy, I was going to have to do it.

"This is my friend, Chase," I tell Troy motioning to him as I get back up from petting his dog.

Troy nods at him and gives him a small smile. "Nice to meet you. I'm Troy." And then they shake hands and I'm sure Chase is feeling all giddy. "What are you guys up to?"

"Oh, we're just going to get some milkshake and hamburgers."

"That sounds good."

And of course, Chase steps in. And I really don't know why he said what he said. "Wanna join us?"

I mean, I wasn't mad. But who knows if the one time I hung out with Troy will be the only time I actually had a good time with him. For all I know, we could have completely different personalities and this second hang out can be awkward and stuff. I don't know. i don't know why I'm over thinking this. And also, Chase is a freaking weirdo for inviting someone he doesn't even know to lunch. Ugh, I hope he doesn't think I wanted Chase to do that because I didn't.

Troy kind of looked over at me and shrugged just a bit. "You sure?" It was a way of saying he did want to come, but he didn't want to directly come out and say it in case I didn't want him to go. At least that's the way I looked at it.

So I stepped in. I was fine with it, I guess. I was just excited to have some one on one time with Chase. "Yeah, come on. Milkshakes for everyone."

Troy then goes and puts his dog inside and gets his wallet and jacket, I'm assuming, and Chase and I hop in the car and wait for him. I was still a little iffy about it, but I have to branch out I guess. Meet new people.

"You mad at me?"

I buckled myself up and rolled me eyes. "I'm pretty sure he's straight, Chase," I tell him even though I had no idea. He could very well be gay, but he looked pretty cozy with that Meg girl last night at his house.

"Oh God, I hope he's straight," Chase tells me as he buckles his seat belt too before turning the car on, "It would be a shame a girl missed out on that."

He's so ridiculous, but it made me laugh. He's always making me laugh. "You're crazy."

Chase smiles and nods his head as if he's agreeing. "Oh please, you know you low key want him to come so you could just stare. I did you a favor. It's going to be fun!"

Yeah, I guess it would be fine. Chase has a mouth on him and he could talk to literally anyone so it won't be awkward or there won't be a moment of silence at all. Maybe we'll have the time of our lives. Who knows.

* * *

"Wait, so he just stopped talking to you altogether?" Troy asked Chase as we were driving back from lunch/early dinner.

It was totally weird. I mean, lunch or whatever was fine. Totally fun and we were all talking, but Chase and Troy... they're like bff's. I'm sitting in THE BACK while Troy is in the passenger seat and they're talking as if they're girls. I'm not even in their conversation. It's so weird to me.

"Yeah, that son of a bitch!"

A few months ago, Chase met this guy at some party in the Valley and they hit it off and they started hanging out and he really thought it was going to lead to them getting together, but he hadn't even come out to his parents yet so he cut it off before it became too serious and Chase was PISSED.

I felt so bad because Chase seemed to really like the guy.

"That's so disrespectful," Troy commented. "Why wouldn't he tell you up front that he hadn't come out to his parents and make you think that he had?"

Chase glanced over at me and I looked up from my phone and I couldn't believe. Troy said the exact same, if not same, pretty close to, words that I said to him when he first told me about this. CRAZY. Other people would be like, what a jerk. Blah blah blah. But I found it extremely disrespectful.

And apparently Troy does to.

"You think he was being disrespectful?"

Troy nodded, "Yeah, I mean, he's wasting your time. Obviously you wanted it to go somewhere if you were sticking around."

Man oh man. It seemed like Troy and I had the same brain. All throughout lunch, he and I would agree on stuff and Chase would be the odd one out. I guess it wasn't that weird, but maybe I just found it weird because he was super attractive and like, I feel like he should be one of a kind or something.

"You so get me."

Troy laughed at Chase and I couldn't help but chuckle to myself in the back. Chase was repeatedly complimenting Troy and Troy was just taking it all in stride and he seemed to genuinely be thankful for the compliments. Maybe because they meant more coming from a gay guy.

And then they talked some more about the issue among other things and I was just sitting in the back on my phone playing candy crush. Troy Bolton has taken over my best friend. Not that I was mad or anything, but I'm positive Chase is going to want to hang out with him all the tie now. That's how he ALWAYS it when he meets a new person he likes.

"So what about you? Dating anyone?"

My ears perked up at this. I just wanted to really know if the girl he was looking a bit cozy with on the couch was his girlfriend. Simple curiosity.

Troy shook his head, though, "Nah, not at the moment."

Chase glanced over at him and gave him a somewhat dirty look as if he's lying. "Oh please. You've got to have a girlfriend."

I wonder if he's feeling uncomfortable about Chase hitting on him. But if he is, he's not showing it. "Why?" he asked Chase, either playing dumb or seriously not getting what Chase meant.

Chase let out a small laughed and turned onto our block. "You know what I mean."

Troy smiled and so yeah, he was playing dumb and he did understand. "I just don't have one at the moment," he told him, "but I am interested in a girl right now if that's what you want to hear."

Okay, yeah, it's definitely Meg. Or whatever. Unless he was like Taylor and liked two girls at once. Eh, he very well could be. There's a lot of assholes in this world. And I hated everyone like that. My dad who we're guessing ran off with this 20 something year old. My ex uncle who cheated on my aunt while she was pregnant. Taylor. So many fucking assholes. And I hate them all.

Chase laughed and shook his head, "Nah, I was just wondering."

And then we finally pulled into my driveway and I was happy. Not to get away from the conversation that I wasn't really in, but because I was SO unbelievably tired and all I wanted to do was go upstairs, crawl into bed, watch a few shows online and then go to sleep.

Yep. It was time to say bye to Troy. AND CHASE. Especially Chase. I wanted to get rid of him or else he'd come inside and want to talk and or watch a movie that I do not want to see because I'd rather be watching my shows and getting ready to go to sleep. Who cares if it's only five o clock.

Before I knew it, I was snuggled up in my bed wearing my most comfiest sweatpants and large sweater and I was watching The Mindy Project online and laughing my face off and ah, it was the most relaxing thing.

This day actually wasn't so bad.

* * *

Mike Weller's party.

Ah, the new bittersweet time of the year. I loved Mike's parties. They weren't your typical Friday night parties. No, this whole placed was decked out. Lights everywhere, a DJ, a photo booth, a jumper, a trampoline, face paint, EVERYTHING. It was definitely an adult birthday party. Topped off with bottles and bottles of alcohol. And there were so many people here, but at the same time, it was only people Mike wanted. It's very exclusive, but Mike has SO many friends and acquaintances and it filled this place right up.

"Happy birthday!" I ran into Mike's arms with my present in my hands and tried to give him the biggest hug possible.

He pulled away and smiled at me, "So happy you're here!" and then he grabs my present from me, "thank you."

I smiled at him and shook my head, "Are you kidding? I wouldn't miss this for the world. You're, like, my brother. Who cares about that asshole." I kind of still do, but eh, no. I can't think about him all night and make myself crazy.

"Good," he tells me, "I just can't uninvite him, you know? It would be so last minute and I'd feel bad."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," I waved my hands, "don't worry about it. It's your party. You can have whoever you want here. Totally fine." I was just crossing my fingers that I wouldn't run into him. I've been pretty good about avoiding him at school.

Mike smiled at me and then looked scattered, "Oh, do you want a drink or something? I'll get it for you."

Ha. What a nice host. "Oh no, Nicole's getting me one. She's around here somewhere," I look around for her, but can't really spot her in this sea of people, "I'm fine."

"Okay," he tells me, "I'm going to go put this down. I'll see you in a bit okay?"

I nod my head and wave him off. Yeah, he definitely should go mingle. I loved Mike so much. We went to the same school, but didn't hang out that much there. More so outside of school and stuff. And we'd always talk. He was handsome, but we never thought about going there. It would be way too weird for us. I like him as my unofficial brother.

"So, I just heard Taylor's not coming until later because he's babysitting his sister until 10:30 or so, so he's only stopping by for a bit."

I turned to my right and saw Nicole handing me a drink as she was drinking some of hers. Oh. That's nice. I shouldn't care. "Good," I tell her, "That's two hours of not having to see him."

Nicole laughed and nodded. "My thoughts exactly. And even when he does come, maybe you won't have to. Look at all these people. We already lost Char."

"And Chase," I add.

Then we mingled and drank and decided to get out face painted. Because why not? It would be so cute. And it was! I got this little vine of flowers on the side of m face starting at the end of my eyebrows and I LOVED it. I was taking as many pictures as I could with everyone.

We all occupied the photo booth for a while. Nicole, Char, Chase and I and it was the best thing, ever. But then Chase went to mingle with some friends. Char's love interest came and she went to go talk to her so it was just Nicole and I sitting there. Nicole went to jump on the jumper so so I went over to my friend Tori and she made me the most delicious margarita I've ever tasted. And before I know it, it was almost 12 and I hadn't seen Taylor yet but I wasn't even worrying about that anymore. I was having the time of my life. And I was so happy about it.

Until someone spilled their drink ALL over my pants.

"Ah!" I yelled out, scooting back.

I looked up and saw that it was my freaking neighbor. Troy Bolton. "I'm so..." he began to say before realizing it was me, "sorry... Gabriella?"

Who cares if he was my neighbor. I was still mad. He spilled on my pants! "Can you get me some napkins?"

Troy nodded his head and went to the kitchen immediately. We were inside. The party was mostly outside, but there were a handful of people inside the living room area and the kitchen.

"Here," he tells me as he places the napkins in my hands and takes my drink out and sets it down on the table next to us. "I'm so sorry. I didn't see you."

Well obviously he didn't see me. "It's okay." Even though I don't know if it is.

He gets down and starts using the napkins he has in his hands to wipe off the floor. "Good thing it's only water."

WHAT? He only spilled water on me? "Why are you drinking water?" was the first thing out of my mouth. And I have no idea why. Maybe because it's a party and my inner alcoholic is coming out so I don't know why he would be drinking water. Oh maybe he wants to sober up or something.

He looks up at me and then gets up and chuckles. "Because I like water?"

I should be mad at him, I'm drenched in water. Well, my pants are. But I'm chuckling right along with him. "Sorry," I tell him, "stupid question." But you know, I'm not mad anymore and I'm over it because I am luckily wearing black pants. "You're lucky I'm wearing black pants."

He laughs and puts the wet paper towels on the table for now and gives me back my drink. I'm already sitting on the couch, though, so he sits next to me and he looks down at my pants. "Can't even see the water."

I look down at them too and start to feel them. "Note to self: always wear black pants to parties so it'll be okay if drunks spill on you."

He smiled and leaned back a little on the couch. It was a small couch, basically only made for two people. And I looked around and we were the only ones in the living room now. There were still a lot of people in the kitchen and the dining room, and the living room was sort of connected to it, but sort of not.

"I'm not drunk," he tells me.

Okay, now I feel dumb. "Oh." I say, but I'm not going to let him make me feel stupid. "You sure were acting like it."

"Touche." YES. "Are you going to be able to enjoy the party drenched in water?"

I nod. "I think so. But if not, I'll go upstairs and borrow Judy's blow dryer or something and all shall be well."

He lifted his head a bit and squinted his eyes as if he was realizing something. "You know Judy?"

Then I realize we're at Mike's party still. Troy knows Mike? Mike knows Troy? Or is he just crashing the party? "Yeah, I have since like birth. My mom and her are best, best friends."

"Oh really?"

I nod, "Yeah, and Mike's like my unofficial brother."

He sort of nods his head. "Hm. That's cool. Mike and I went to middle school together, but we actually just started playing on the same soccer team this year. Judy's so nice."

Oh small world. Well, not really. I guess many people knew Mike. But my fairly new neighbor? Eh, weird. "Yeah, she is. And I..." but I stopped mid sentence because I looked at who was coming inside from the outside and it was none other than Taylor fucking Bay. "Fuck."

I looked back at Troy and he looked confused. "What?"

"Nothing," I shook my head, "my ex bf just walked inside."

Troy looked over to the sliding doors and thank God Taylor had already turned his head and was in the kitchen grabbing himself a drink or something. Who knows. But it would have been embarrassing if Taylor caught Troy looking because it would have meant that I said something about him. He hasn't even seen me yet which was good because maybe I could escape and leave this party. NOW.

He turned back around to face me. "You okay?"

I nod, "Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just... mad that he's here. It makes me so mad inside just looking at him."

Troy seemed to understand. So he offered to tell me a story to get my mind off of him as he was in the kitchen a few feet away. I mean, I didn't want to just get up and walk away because it looks like he has this power over me. I'm not going to be a little bitch about it. So I stayed put and let Troy tell me his story. And once he was done, I was cracking up. It was such a funny story. And it wasn't even laughs so Taylor could see that I was having a good time with this guy. Or to get his attention and make him jealous. It was genuinely a funny story and every time I think of it, I'll laugh.

"I can't believe that happened!" I told him in between laughs, "oh my gosh, that's funny."

Troy flashed me a smile and nodded, "I know, I know. It is. I don't tell that story to a lot of people so consider yourself lucky."

And in that moment, I completely forgot about Taylor in the kitchen and literally just focused on Troy. And his beautiful blue eyes and cheekbones and his straight smile and what looked like really soft hair. And it was weird to me. I felt... attracted to him? I mean, any girl would be attracted to him. But I think what I felt was more... am I interested? No. I can't. I just got out of a relationship. I can't possibly be interested in someone else. Even though he seems to be super sweet, super nice, and super FUNNY. Funny's a prerequisite for me.

After a few moments of settling down from the story, I end up glancing at the kitchen and Taylor's still in there and I... I didn't care anymore. I didn't care that he was there. I didn't care that he was having a good time, it seemed. I didn't care that he cheated on me. I just wanted to be done with all of that.  
I'm sick of having his anger and sadness inside of me. I just want to let it all go.

"Hey, you want to get out of here?" Troy asks me as he sees me looking over at the kitchen.

I think about it for a moment. And then decide that yes, I do want to get out of there. It's 12:10. It doesn't seem like he's been drinking so that's good. Char and Nicole live right next to each other and Char's mom doesn't care about drinking so she's picking them up along with Chase. And I was going to call my cousin who lives a block away from Chase and she was going to pick me up and I was just going to spend the night with her, but if Troy's offering me a ride home, I'll take it. I prefer my own bed, anyway.

"Yeah," I tell him, "but I have to do something really quick." I don't really give him a chance to answer. I get up and walked over to the kitchen and immediately pull Taylor to the side.

"Hey," he tells me.

But I just shake my head. I'm not here for small talk. "I just want to let you know that I forgive you. I forgive you for what you did and I just want to be done with it. You live your life, I live mine. If I see you in the hall, I probably won't smile but I'm not going to turn the corner. I'm not mad at you anymore. I'm not sad. I'm not disappointed. I'm just... I'm done with everything. And I can't have you in my life anymore."

I gave him a minute to kind of take it all in. And he was just sort of standing there not saying anything. But he finally did. "You're over it?"

"I just can't do this, Taylor. I'm, I'm done," I tell him. I'm not completely over it, if I'm being honest. He was my life. But I can't sit around here without some closure if I want to move on with my life.

He looked down at the ground and then back up at me. "I see. Is there a reason you're over it so quickly?"

I rolled my eyes slightly. Pretty sure he was insinuating that it was because of a guy. Maybe he helped me a bit. A guy being nice to me. But I had to do it for myself. "Yeah, because I just remembered that you fooled me, betrayed me, humiliated me. I can't trust you. I can't be with you. I just can't."

Taylor was much more quiet than usual. But I wasn't going to walk away without him saying anything. "I still love you. And I would do anything to have you back in my life. I want you to know that."

I knew he'd say something along the lines and I wanted to be there to hear them. But what I felt in my heart at that moment was nothing worth not walking away. I just couldn't be with him. At least not now. Or probably ever.

"Bye Taylor."

I sighed and turned around and walked past Troy, but he immediately followed and we went out the front door. And then we got into his car and drove off. And five minutes later, we were at home. And it was just kind of awkward. The night isn't ruined. I just, I didn't want to talk to Taylor but I knew I had to. It had been a while since I last talked to him and I knew I had to get it over with.

But I was happy to be home. Safely. I was tired. And I didn't feel like drinking anymore. I had barely a buzz but that was enough.

"Do you wanna come in and have some hot chocolate?" he asks me as if he knows that will get me in. HOT CHOCOLATE IS MY FAVORITE. "my parents are gone for the night, so it's just me and Camille."

Oh.

"Yeah, sure," I tell him. My parents don't know I'm coming home anyway. I was supposed to stay at Sabrina's but that changed.

So we go into his house and straight to his kitchen and I sit on one of the stools around the island and wait for my cup. I guess his mom made hot chocolate earlier and all he has to do it warm it up on the stove. And I couldn't wait. Hot chocolate was seriously one of my favorite drinks in the world.

"My mom makes the best hot chocolate," he brags with a smile, "you'll love it."

After a few minutes, he pours some into a mug for me and hands it over and is standing there waiting for me to taste it. It's hot, but I manage to get a good sip in and yes. He was right. It is absolutely delicious. "You're right."

He smiles proudly and turned around and pours himself some. And then we find out way back to the living room and he's turning on the TV and we land on the movie Knocked Up and we sort of just leave it there because I don't think either of us want to decide what to watch. So we're just sitting there on the couch drinking our hot chocolates laughing at this movie. It was actually funny. And this was actually better than staying an extra hour and getting drunk. And feeling uncomfortable. And having to avoid Taylor. I'm glad this is where I ended up tonight.

"I like your face paint," Troy tells me a while into the movie. It's almost 1 now and I should probably head home, but I kind of want to finish this movie. And  
I just hope he's fine with it.

I'm blushing because I don't know. It's sort of a compliment. And I don't think I've ever received one from him before. "I completely forgot I had it on," I laughed, "but thanks. I don't look too childish?"

He shakes his head. "Nah. You look fine."

I look fine. Hm. I guess I'll take it. "Well, thank you," I smile at him. And then I turned back to the movie and drank my hot chocolate.

The night wasn't so bad after all. I had a lot of fun.


	6. Chapter 6

I woke up feeling weird inside. I wasn't hungover. I wasn't anxious abut anything. I was just... I don't know. Confused, maybe? Yeah, I don't know. Last night was weird and kind of unexpected, but it wasn't bad... at all. I kind of wish I could relive it. Except for the whole Taylor part. I mean, it's good that I got what I wanted to say out... about being completely done with the situation, but if I could just not have to have talked to him, that would have been way better.

"Gabs, you up...?"

Ugh what does my sister want? It's... oh, it's 9:30. It's kind of late. Ha. "Yeah, come in," I tell her sitting up on my bed slightly.

She comes in with a glass of orange juice and I could see the pulp from where I was laying so I knew for sure she wasn't bringing it to me. It was hers. I hate pulp. It was so gross.

"Do you wanna go to Mike's soccer game with me and Camille?"

I do, but I'm sooooo tired. "You're going?"

She nodded as she came and sat at the end of my bed. "Yeah, I mean, dad and mom are going and they're taking Mason and so Camille's going so I figured I'd go. It'll be fun."

Sure. I mean, I love soccer. And we go to as many of Mike's games as we can. "Okay, yeah, what time?"

"11. If Camille doesn't go with her parents, she'll come with us."

Wait. What? The Bolton's are going? "Why are they going? I've never seen them at one of Mike's game... like, ever. And we're always there."

Madison went over to my dresser and grabbed one of my creams as she put her orange juice down. Ugh she grabbed the most expensive cream. That bitch. "I guess Troy's on Mike's team now," she turned around as she squirted some out in her hand, "it'll be fun. The more, the merrier."

I guess. I don't know. I'm feel a bit weird. "Yeah, sure."

And then all of a sudden, she smiles at me and it's a weird smile, like she wants to know something. Oh God. What is it. "What happened last night?"

I sat up a little more, trying to wake myself up. "What?" She rolled her eyes. She probably thought I was playing dumb, but I literally have no idea what she's talking about. "Last night, when?"

"You snuck in here around, like, 2 and I was there at the party when Chase and Nicole left and then Char got a ride from someone else so I don't know, that's a bit weird to me since you were supposed to leave with them," she explains to me, "who'd you leave with?"

My sister was there at the party but she got there late because she went to our cousin's party as well. I skipped that and so she went for the both of us. And  
I completely forgot she was going to be there so I didn't even bother to tell her when I was leaving or who was taking me home. And I know she's probably sitting there thinking I went home with Taylor or something, but I didn't. No way in hell would I ever do that.

I didn't really want to answer because she's dramatic, but I knew she was going to keep pestering me so I had to make it seem like it was no big deal. "Troy."

"Troy?"

I nodded as I sat up completely and kicked the covers off of me a bit. "Is that okay with you?"

She chuckled a bit. "Uh, yeah, why wouldn't it be?"

"I don't know, you seemed surprised by the whole thing."

Mads shook her head. "No, I just, I don't know. I wouldn't have thought of it. Why'd you get a ride from him?"

I decided to just get up because the longer I sit in my bed, the more I won't want to go to the game and I kind of really want to go to the game now since Troy was playing. But I wasn't going to tell Madison that. At least not right now. "I don't know. He said he was gong home and he lives across the street, so why not?"

Madison shrugged. "I don't know, I thought you were spending the night at Sabrina's."

Oh yeah. Ummm. "I just didn't feel like it after all."

She didn't looked convinced because I LOVED staying at Sabrina's. Even though I prefer sleeping alone and my own bed, Sabrina's bed is heavenly and in the morning her mom makes the BEST waffles. So whenever I have the chance to, I spend the night.

"You're not telling me something..."

She's right. I just didn't want to talk about Taylor at all but I knew I would have to since she is my sister and she knows something's up. "Okay, fine. I saw Taylor last night and I talked to him and basically just told him I forgive him, I'm over everything and I just want to be done with him."

"Done? Like... you're cutting him out of your life for good?"

I nodded as I walked over to my dresser and grabbed some underwear and a bra. "Basically. I just, I'm not going back to him so I have to move on and the only way to do that is to cut him out of my life."

Madison nodded as she sat back down on my bed. "I probably would have left, too. Just wish you would have told me so I could make sure you were okay."

I shrugged. "You were outside, I was inside and I really just wanted to get out of there. But I was okay."

Crap. Big mistake. I knew what was going to come out of her mouth next. "Did Troy make you feel that way?"

Knew it. I rolled my eyes and walked over to my window and opened it. It was a beautiful day outside, I can already tell, so I'll leave my window open for the rest of the day. And as I was opening it, I saw Troy coming out of his house with a soccer ball and his soccer bag. Shit.

I moved before he could even see me and turned back to face Mads. "We're friends, Mads."

Is it not possible to be friends with an attractive guy or what? I didn't get it. "No, yeah, yeah, I know that. But he's hot, Gabs. You should definitely go for it before he gets a girlfriend or something."

To be perfectly honest, if Troy got a girlfriend, I wouldn't necessarily be bummed, but I would kind of... not like it. I don't know. Last night was weird. It's like I could actually see myself being attracted to him and I think I am. Am I interested? I haven't decided that yet, but I'm definitely attracted to him.

"We're friends and we're neighbors and yeah..."

Madison rolled her eyes and got off my bed. "I'm just saying. He's cool. I like him."

Yeah, yeah, yeah. She took one last look in the mirror to make sure the cream was rubbed in all the way and then gave me a small smile before grabbing her orange juice and walking out. I closed the door behind her and went over to my closet with my underwear and bra in hand and looked through everything. Hmm, what to wear. It was a nice day so I decided on a pair of jeans and just a plain band t-shit. Nirvana to be exact. I really wasn't in the mood for dressing up. Or doing my hair or anything. I pulled my hair up because I was only taking a body shower. My hair was fine for now. I got out of my closet, put my clothes on my bed and went to my bathroom to talk a quick shower. Fifteen minutes later, I was out of there and dressed. I hurried downstairs so I could eat a bagel before we left. And at 10:25 am, I was ready to go. Ohhhh yeah. 5 minutes before I even said I'd be ready. I love when that happens.

* * *

"Gabriella!"

I ran into the arms of Judy Weller, Mike's mom, who was like another mom to me. Seriously, she's the greatest. "I've missed you!"

She pulled back and grabbed my face and made her hands to my hair pushing it out of my face. "I haven't seen you in a few weeks! Mike told me you went last night, but I guess you left before I got home. I was bummed."

We turned around and started walking to our area on the sidelines where she had chairs set up already. "Yeah, yeah, I left a little after 12. Taylor was there and I don't know, I just didn't want to deal."

Judy shook her head. "I told Mike to uninvite him, but he didn't listen to me."

I laughed. She was so sweet. "No, no, it's okay. I got like three good hours in. I had a lot of fun."

We went and sat down with her husband and my parents who were already there. Oh and the Bolton's. So weird how they're all friends now. Who knew? Ha. Madison and Camille actually just dropped me off and they went to the store really quick, but my favorite moment in the game is the very first second so  
I definitely didn't want to miss that.

I took a seat right next to Judy and after we got comfortable, she turned to me. "You seem to be doing okay."

Yeah. I was. I was doing okay. "I'm good."

She smiled at me and tried not to talk so loud. My mom wasn't even paying attention. She was in the middle of a story telling Rebecca a story. "I'm really glad you came. You haven't been to one of Mike's games this year and you love coming to these, so it's good you're here."

He's only had 2 games, but it was actually strange that I haven't been because I always came to Mike's games. I loved soccer and he was the closest person to me that played so of course I loved coming to watch him.

"I was just in a funk and it's been weird, but I'm happy I'm here. Taylor doesn't deserve anymore of my time. He's out of sight, out of mind..."

Judy smiled at me. "Yeah! And you know Troy, he's your new neighbor... so now you can support the both of them. It'll be fun."

Yeah. Yeah. Of course. "How come I didn't know they were friends?"

I mean, Mike and I ran in different circles, but I'd go over to his house all the time for BBQs or to just hang out with him and his mom or sister. So the fact that I never ran into Troy there or even knew his name before he became my neighbor is a little weird to me.

"They went to middle school together and became good friends, but we moved back to Calabasas and I don't know. Rebecca and I stayed close, so did our husbands but it's harder for kids to. We'd get together and sometimes they'd come along, but not always. And now they're closer to us and Troy joined our team so they're picking their friendship back up. I don't know."

Oh okay. I guess that makes sense. It's just, I'm close to the Wellers so I feel like I should know who their bff's are. Ha. "Just wondering."

She nodded. "Yeah, they're good, fun people."

Judy turned around to talk to my mom and I just sat there looking out at the guys warming up. It was such a beautiful day and I wish I played soccer still. But Tennis... I was so good at it. I don't know. But I'm happy I can still watch soccer, because that's just as fun. Well, almost.

And then I made eye contact with Troy. He probably didn't even know I was coming but I'm sure he figured it out that I was here for Mike since I am sitting next to his mom.

Well, I guess I'm sort of here for him, too. I don't know. He fixed his shorts a bit and tucked in his shirt and then looked back at me and smiled.

Swoon. Seriously. He's so fucking hot.

* * *

Okay, Troy's reaallllly good. And Mike has stepped up his game. Seriously. Troy scored a goal and they won 2-0. It was a really good game and I'm really glad I came.

They came over to where we were at and said hi to all of us. I didn't really say anything back, just smiled at Troy. Well, at Mike, too.

"So, hey, it's a beautiful day," Judy starts saying as she flings her chair over her shoulder, "why don't we all go back to our house and grill some burgers or something? Maybe get in the pool."

That actually sounded like a really good idea because I was STARVING.

And apparently everyone else was, too, since they all agreed. Even Troy, which maybe made me a little happy on the inside. Gah, what's happening. Do I like him? No, right? I don't know him all that well.

My parents were going to go to the store and get the patties and everything since they're supplying the house and they were going straight there after. The Bolton's were going to meet them there as well after they got some dessert and drinks.

"Cam, can you give me a ride?"

Camille looked a bit uncomfortable at Troy's question since she didn't drive here. "Um, I came with Gabs and Mads."

Madison looked over at me and smirked. Ugh. I knew what she was thinking. "We can give you a ride, no problem." Of course she's offering him a ride. I'm sitting shotgun, though.

It shouldn't be a problem. I mean, I've been around him plenty, but now it's a bit different. Maybe not for him, but for me. I just feel like I'm growing attracted to him and I don't know if that's a good or bad thing since we're neighbors, our parents are quickly becoming BFF's and I don't know.

Calm down, Gabriella. He's probably not going to act weird since NOTHING is going on between you guys.

Yep. It was just in my crazy girl head. We were perfectly fine on the way home. In fact, we all laughed and stuff and now we were pulling into his driveway and I thought he might just want to change his clothes when he asked if he could go home really quick, but he's getting out and saying bye to us?

"Wait. You're not coming?"

He nodded at Camille's question, "Yeah, I am. Just gonna shower really quick, change and pick up Megan since I told her we could hang out, I'll feel bad bailing on her, so thought I'd just bring her. I'll meet you guys there."

"Ohhh okay, yeah, bring her. I miss her," Camille squealed.

And then he was off into his house and Madison was pulling out of the driveway and heading towards Judy's house. And I'm here sitting, wondering who the fuck Megan was. Was it that girl that I saw that one day on his couch? Yeah, huh? Her name sounds really familiar.

But who is she exactly? A girlfriend? An almost girlfriend? A hook up buddy? Ugh. Why do I care so much?

"Hello?"

I turned around and saw Camille answer her phone so I put the radio down to let her talk.

"Heeeey, what's up?" she cooed into her phone, "no, yeah, he's at home. I just dropped him off. Oh okay, well you live right by Mike's, do you want us to pick you up? I don't think it'll be a problem at all. Yeah, he's coming in probably 30 minutes or so, I don't know, really. Okay, I'll call you when we're outside..."

Did she just volunteer us to pick someone up?

She put her phone away in her purse and then spoke up. "Mads?"

Madison looked at her through the rear view mirror and perked her head up, "Yeah?"

"Do you mind maybe picking up my friend? Troy was going to pick her up, but she has to leave her house now and..."

Madison didn't let her finish the sentence. She said yes and asked for directions right away. I mean, I guess it's fine. But we're picking up Megan? This girl Troy is dating or whatever? Cool. I guess. I don't know what's wrong with me. I don't know why I don't want her to come or hm to have a girlfriend.

Do I have a crush on Troy Bolton?

I think I do.

"Have you guys met?"

I snapped out of my thoughts once I heard Camille's voice. I turned back to her and realized Megan was now in the car. Great.

She smiled at me and I said hi and Madison said hi and we all agreed we met that one time at their house and that was that. It was a two minute drive to Mike's so we didn't really talk much. But I did notice that she was realllllly pretty. She has bright green eyes and dark hair that brought them out even more. It wasn't fair and no wonder Troy liked her. And she seemed nice. So bleh, I can't hate her even if I wanted to.

* * *

I've been here two hours and I want to go home. Well, I'm not bored or anything, I just don't really feel good. I'm pretty sure I'm getting sick.

But it looks like my parents are not leaving anytime soon.

And Camille, Megan and Madison went to the mall. They left literally like a minute ago and I regret not telling them to give me a ride home, but now I'm stuck here. I guess I can go take a nap inside, but eh, I'd rather take a nap in my bed.

"Gabs!"

I turned around and saw Samantha Weller, Mike's younger sister. She was two years younger than me, one year younger than Madison so they were closer, but I still hung out with her. She was like another little sister to me.

I got up to hug her. I see her at school and stuff, but I haven't talked to her in a little while. "Sam!"

"This is such a surprise. What's everyone doing here?"

There weren't that many people, but there were people. My parents, Troy's parents. Her parents. Her brother. Troy. And a couple of their friends came over and they're in the front of the house playing some basketball or something like that. "Your mom just invited us for some food after Mike's game, which you did not go to by the way..."

"I know," she frowned, "I had to do this extra credit assignment that's due on Monday. I'm bummed. They won, though, right?"

I nodded, "Yeah, they did. 2-0."

"Nice," she tells me as she reaches over in the cooler which is right by my chair and grabs herself a coke, "there's still food right? I'm starving."

"Yeah," I laugh, "pretty sure there will still be food all day. There's a lot."

She smiled and went over to grab some food and then she came back and sat next to me. Thank God she got here. Maybe hanging out with her will make me forget about the killer pressure in my forehead and my runny nose.

"So how long have you been here?" she asks me, opening her soda and taking a small sip, "why haven't you been over in a while? I see you at school, but still it's not the same."

Ugh, I know it's not. I guess I've just been busy. "I know, I know. But seriously, I've missed you."

"Me too!" she exclaimed, being dramatic on purpose. Ha. "Let's go get a massage or something soon. I know you love those."

She's right. I do love massages and I haven't had one in a while so it sounds perfect right now. "Seriously. Let's go whenever. I'm craving one now. Ooh, and a facial, maybe?"

"Duh," she smiled at me before throwing a chip into her mouth.

And then Rebecca Bolton came over to us. She was about to take something inside. "Good?"

Sam chewed her burger and threw a thumbs up before swallowing. "Yeah, yeah, it's delicious. Who made them?"

Rebecca smiled, "it was a team effort. They all grilled some. So I have no idea who grilled yours."

Sam laughed and took a sip of her drink to wash don her food I guess. They stared talking about some stuff that didn't include me so I kind of zoned out.  
I looked over to where the parents were sitting and they all looked to be having a good time. Drinking beers and enjoying each other's presence. That was nice. I hope my friends and I are like that in the future.

"Isn't it weird?"

I snapped out of my thoughts and focused my attention back on Sam. "What?"

She watched Rebecca leave to go inside and shrugged. "I don't know. That the Bolton's were good friends of ours, you guys are too and now you guys live across the street from each other so now we're all hanging out."

I mean, I guess, yeah, but at the same time, it's just a small world I guess. "Oh, yeah, I had no idea. I feel like we know all of your guys' friends."

Sam laughed and took another bite of her burger. "Maybe because you guys are friends with them, too. It's the group. The Bolton's are separate form them and they come over and hang and stuff, but it's not like you guys. I guess now it will start to be, I don't know."

Who knows. And it's not a big deal. But I guess it is kind of weird they haven't been around when we've been, like at parties and stuff.

"I can't wait for their Christmas Party, though," Sam said in excitement, "it's always the best and you guys will probably go this year. YOU, especially need to go. Troy's mom makes THE best apple pie."

Oh man, I'm a sucker for apple pie. It was literally my favorite dessert in the whole wide world. "Yeah? You think they'll invite us?"

Sam nodded. "Oh yeah, my mom's told me that your mom and Rebecca have really hit it off so I don't see why not. It's a really fun party. They go all out. That's kind of what they're known for. Throwing parties. Well, their Christmas party especially. SO FUN."

Hmm. Yeah, I guess so. I mean, Christmas is coming up. We're in November. I'm sure we'll go if we get invited. My mom LOVES parties.

"Wait. Where's Mads?"

I laughed. Sam just noticed she wasn't here? What a good best friend she is. Ha. My sister and her were definitely closer. "Her, Camille and Megan went to the mall. And I don't know where else. Maybe to get some ice cream?"

"Megan?"

She knows Megan? "Yeah..."

Sam picked up a couple of her chips, "Megan Stowell?"

Uhhh. I have no idea. "I don't know her last name. Green eyes, black hair... really pretty."

She nodded and threw the chips in her mouth. And then took a sip of her soda. "I'm sad I didn't get here earlier, I would have wanted to go to the mall with them. And I am craving some ice cream."

"You know her?"

"Yeah," she tells me as she picks up her burger, "she's close with the Bolton's and we actually used to go to the same dance company. She's cool."

Ugh, ew. Not what I wanna hear right now. Well, I shouldn't care. It's not like I like Troy a lot. I'm just crushing. And maybe it's just so I could get over my douche bag ex boyfriend or maybe there's something genuinely there, I don't know.

Whatever. Not like it matters.

Sam finished her burger and went to throw it away and then came back and took a phone call. "Yeah, I just got done eating. Ooh, yeah, I've been wanting  
to go shopping. Okay, yeah, come over now please. K, see you soon."

"Who was that?"

Sam took a few more sips of her soda to finish it off. "Nicky. She wants to go shopping. You wanna come?"

I knew Nicky and I really liked her, but eh, no. If I wanted to, I would have gone with Mads and Camille. "No, I'm okay. I think I'm gonna get going."

"You are? I didn't see your car out there."

I know, which sucked. I'm probably going to take my parents car and I can pick them up later. Or I can call Char to pick me up. She literally lives like three blocks away and I'm pretty sure she's not doing anything. "Yeah, I'm gonna have Char pick me up."

We went inside so she could get her purse and stuff and then Nicky came and picked her up so I was by myself again, but I didn't care. I was so comfortable in this house it's like as if I were in my house.

I grabbed a couple grapes that were in a bowl in the kitchen and dialed Char's number.

No answer.

Ugh. I tried again and she didn't answer again. What the heck.

The third time, though, when she didn't answer, I decided to leave her a voicemail because she hates voicemails and it's her payback for not answering the phone. "Char, what the heck. What are you doing? Can you come pick me up at Mike's? I want to go home and I have no way to get there. Well, no, I do have a way, but I don't want to bother my parents and I know you're not out and about so pick me up please! You owe me."

I clicked end and rolled my eyes. I hated leaving voicemails, too, but whatever. I grabbed a couple more grapes and turned around and literally almost collided with Troy Bolton.

Whoops. "Sorry."

He laughed and scooted back a bit. "Oh, no, I'm sorry..."

I kind of smiled. Nervously, of course. I don't know why. We were just standing there looking at each other and then he slowly reached over my shoulder and grabbed some grapes from the bowl. Oh, that's what he wanted.

I moved to the side so he could grab more and he did. He popped a couple in his mouth before turning around and facing me. "What are you doing?"

Meh, nothing. I put my phone in my back pocket and hoped it would buzz soon and it would be Char telling me she's on her way. "Oh, nothing. I was just with Sam, but she left, so yeah..."

He nodded and the both of us stayed quiet for a few moments. Until he spoke up. "I can give you a ride if you want."

"What?"

He smiled a bit. "Sorry, I overheard your call. Or your message, I don't know."

Yeah, message. "Oh. Um, no, it's okay. You can keep playing. Char will probably call me back any minute. And if not, I can just take my parents car or something. It's fine."

"But then you're going to have to pick them up when they're ready to go? Sure, they could get a ride from my parents, but what if they wanna leave before my parents? Plus, you said you didn't want to bother them."

I never thought about that. I didn't put much thought into this. All I knew is I wanted to go home and sleep. "Really, it's okay..."

"Okay, whatever you say, but I'm leaving too..."

What? He's leaving and not coming back? Um, then of course I'll take a ride. "Are you really leaving? Or are you just saying that so you could give me a ride? Because I'll feel bad."

He laughed a bit and grabbed some more grapes. "No, I'm leaving. I have to get some homework done before I go out tonight so might as well go do it."

Oh. I wonder where he's going. It's almost 4 and the fact that he's going out and I'm planning on just going home and going to sleep is lame. Oh, God. I'm  
so lame. He should definitely stick with Megan. Megan. Oh my gosh. She said something about wanting an outfit for tonight. Ew. I wonder what they're going to do. Are they going to some fancy party together? Are they celebrating a certain anniversary? Hmm.

"Well, okay, then. Thanks."

He smiled and plopped some grapes in his mouth and walked past me. Oh boyyy.


	7. Chapter 7

"Do you want some ice cream or frozen yogurt?"

I looked over at Troy from staring out the window. What? He wanted ice cream? "If you want some." What else could I say? I'm not necessarily craving it,  
but he's the one driving so he can do whatever he wants.

He didn't say much else, he just took a right turn at the light and I knew we were going to get frozen yogurt. Not ice cream.

Yep. 2 minutes later, we're sitting in front of Mechies, a popular frozen yogurt place here in Calabasas. It was SO good. And I kind of really want some now. So I'm glad we're here.

"Go ahead," he lets me order first.

Hmm what do I want? I went with just vanilla and I topped it off with strawberries, fruity pebbles, mini peanut butter cups and raspberries. I kept mine simple and apparently Troy did too since he got the same thing as me minus the fruity pebbles. He got some other kind of chocolate instead.

We ended up staying here to eat it since his would probably melt by the time we got home since he was driving. And I didn't mind. I didn't have to get home.

"I love this place."

Me too. "It's so good," I tell him taking a bite filled with fruity pebbles and strawberries, "I used to come like almost every day after school my junior year. But I had to cut down." And I did. Now I only have it like once or twice a week. Ha.

He laughed. "You can't even tell."

Oh. What does that mean? Ha. Is he complimenting my physique? "No, yeah, thanks to tennis. But my addiction got bad."

"Hey, it's better than drugs."

I couldn't help, but laugh. I couldn't believe he was comparing those two things. "Yeah, true," but it was true. It was better than an addiction to drugs. "Are you gonna be able to get your homework done before you have to go out?"

He nodded. "Yeah, I will. I'm not sure if I even want to go out anymore."

Oh. I didn't want to really ask why, because well, I don't want to hear about Megan. Ha. I also wonder if Megan will care that we're here having frozen yogurt.

"I'm the same way," I try to relate, to be able to contribute something to the conversation, "I get ready, look in the mirror and then realize that my bed just sounds so much better than whatever else I'm planning on doing."

He laughed and shoved a spoonful of yogurt in his mouth. "So you're kind of a homebody?"

I guess he can put it that way. "A homebody with friends," I add to it. "When you hear homebody, you think that they have no friends, but my friends just come to me. Or I go to their house. It's just so much more relaxing and I hate getting ready, to be honest."

Oops. I don't want to give it away that I suck being a girl. Maybe he likes outgoing girls. Eh, oh well, it's not like anything's going to happen. Ha.

"Wow, typical girl."

Ha. I knew he was being sarcastic. I guess I wasn't a typical girl. "Whatever."

He smiled at me and we both sat in a comfortable silence for a little bit just enjoying our frozen yogurt. And then I looked up at him, but I didn't see Troy.  
I mean, he was sitting right in front of me, but behind him, walking through the doors of Mechies was Taylor. Of course. Just my luck.

"Fuck."

I put my head down, hoping he didn't see me, but I think it was too late.

Troy looked confused. "What? What's wrong?"

I didn't want him to turn around or look around because I didn't want Taylor to know I talked about him because I didn't care about him anymore. "Nothing. My ex just walked in and you know... I hate seeing him."

I see him at school, but I know nothing's going to come out of it because we're both on our way to class. But here... he better not try to talk to me. Especially since I told him last night I'm over everything and I don't want to talk to him. Ugh.

Troy looked like he wanted to get me out of there, but I really didn't want to leave the minute he walked in. I wasn't supposed to care about him anymore. Leaving as he comes in signifies that I care and it's too hard to see him. Ugh. This sucked.

"I'm almost done," Troy tells me.

I nod as I shoved this yogurt in my mouth. I carefully glance around and see that his back is turned to me as he's getting his yogurt with his friend. "Why does this always happen to me? It's annoying."

Troy shrugged, "You two do live in the same city with mutual friends, I mean, it's bound to happen. I know it sucks... twice in two days."

I guess so. I'm just glad he knows where we stand now and he won't come and try to talk to me.

Wait. No, he doesn't. Because he's standing at our table with his yogurt in his hand while his friend went outside to get a table there. "Hey."

What the fuck does he want. "What do you want, Taylor?"

"Geez," he says with a small smile and I have no idea what he's trying to do. I don't even want to be friends with him. "Nothing, I just wanted to say hi. And  
I don't know, maybe you can introduce me to your new friend."

Taylor was such an asshole. He was ruthless. He was that guy that didn't care if he looked dumb. He would say whatever he wanted when he wanted. I know if it was just me, he wouldn't come up to me. Or even if I was with a friend. But it was because I was with a guy.

I was going to ask why he cared, but Troy spoke up instead. "I'm Troy."

"Troy?"

Troy nodded. "Can you not hear me over absolutely nothing?"

Haaaaa! There was no music playing. There were hardly any people in here. I mean, I heard him and he was farther away from me than he was from Taylor. It was funny. And I'm glad he kind of burned him.

"You know Gabriella and I used to date?"

What the fuck is he doing? I know he thinks Troy is my new guy, but he's not so I don't want Troy to feel uncomfortable. Ugh. "Taylor..."

Troy looked over at me and for some reason, he gave me this look like, no, it's fine. Let him keep going.

"Oh, really? For how long? Because I'm not sure she's mentioned you before..."

Taylor's smirk on his face instantly disappeared and now he just looked mad. Or annoyed. "Actually for like a year. I'm surprised it hasn't come up. We had  
a pretty good thing going."

Troy nodded and turned around in his chair a bit. "Well, that's too bad, I guess. Your loss."

Taylor looked like he didn't have much else to say. He wasn't a bad guy. So I know he was probably regretting doing this to me, but I also know he hated losing so in a way, he lost. he lost me. And he thinks he lost me to Troy, even though he hasn't. He just lost... me.

But then he said something that I'm not even sure where it came from. Well, I know where it came from, but it came out of the mouth of something I thought I knew. I guess I didn't know since he did cheat on me.

"Just a little piece of advice... she doesn't put out so good luck with that, man," he tells Troy, bending over a little bit as if he's whispering it to him, but I can clearly hear him, "she's all yours now."

And then he snickered and left and went to join his friend outside.

It didn't bother me. It didn't upset me. I knew it was the anger talking. I knew that because the Taylor I know is sweet. And nice. And funny. But I still can't believe he said that. He was trying to hurt me on purpose which wasn't cool, but I wasn't letting it get to me. I'm moving on from him.

Troy looked back at me once he was gone and pushed his yogurt to the side. "Let's go look at some puppies."

I looked up at him from playing around with my yogurt. I was pretty much done with it, anyway. And I smiled. It was probably the best thing he could tell me right now. "Please."

He smiled back at me and we both got up and threw away our trash and left. And as we exited, we passed Taylor and his friend and we made eye contact and the look he gave me, I know that look anywhere. He was truly sorry for what he had said. And I forgive him. I just don't want him.

I'm so over him. I just... I need to move on.

* * *

"They've gotten so big!"

I buckled my seat belt and grabbed my purse from the floor of his car and threw my phone in there.

Troy did the same minus the purse. He plugged his phone into his car charger and then started his car. "I know, it's been, what? Maybe 4 weeks since you saw them last? I saw them a week ago, but yeah, they're getting big."

I smiled at him. They were SO cute. "But still just as cute."

He nodded and put his car in drive and took off. "Can I ask you something? You don't have to answer if you don't want to."

"Sure," I tell him, but I already know the question. He's going to ask what happened between Taylor and I.

Yep, I was right. "I mean, I can kind of guess what happened between you and your ex, but um..."

I didn't want to make him actually ask because I can tell invasive it would feel. So I interrupted him. "We were together for a year, but 3 of those months,  
he was cheating on me. He had a whole other girlfriend. She goes to Sierra or something, I don't know. I broke it off and yeah."

He didn't say much. He just stared ahead at the road. I mean, what could he say really? The obligated, I'm sorry? Eh. I've heard that way too many times these past few weeks. I'm sick of it. So in a way, I like that he didn't really say anything.

"Why are guys such jerks?"

I laughed. They were. And at least he knew it. "I was hoping you could have an answer for me."

He shook his head. "I wish I did, especially for your situation."

Yeah, same. I leaned my head against the window and for the next few minutes, we sat there in silence. And it was fine. It was comfortable. I really just wanted to get home and take a bath. Taylor's an asshole and today further proved that.

We pulled into his driveway. I grabbed my purse, unbuckled myself and got out. He followed suit and before I knew it, I was at the end of the driveway.

Troy stood behind his car as I turned around and stood in front of him. He smiled a bit at me and looked down at the ground for a second before looking back up at me. "You know, I think you're better off without him. He seems like a complete jackass."

I didn't want to deny that, because yeah, he was a jackass, but not completely. I couldn't argue with him, though, because I don't really have proof that he's a good, nice person. "Thank you."

I turned around and took a few steps before he called my name. I turned around and he was just standing there with his hands in his pockets looking cute.

"You know, it's not a bad thing."

What is he talking about? "What?"

"Um, what Taylor said. It's really not a bad thing."

Ohhh. I get it. About not having sex. I mean, I didn't have sex with Taylor. I wanted to wait and for it to be perfect and to know I was completely and head over heels in love. And I was, but still, I didn't feel exactly ready. I never want to regret my first time. I made him wait for a long and I knew he wanted it. He didn't pressure me but you could tell he was always a bit annoyed when it got close to and I chickened out. But I just wasn't ready no matter how in love with him I was. I guess it's good I didn't give him my virginity since he was off with some other girl probably fucking her. Ugh.

I couldn't help but just smile. I was smiling bigger inside, but I didn't want to show him that. And I didn't know what to say so I just smiled. I smiled at him as I tucked some hair behind my ears. And that's all I really could do.

And then I remembered Megan and I realized he probably shouldn't be saying things like that to me, but it was probably because Taylor thought he was my guy. I don't really know. But at the same time, he didn't need to say anything regarding that. So I don't know, it's all very confusing.

Everything sort of went away once I went up to my room and saw Char laying there on my bed reading a magazine.

"Oh, hi..."

Char put her magazine down. "Where have you been?"

What? Ha. "Uhhh, better question... why didn't you pick up my phone calls? I could have been stranded somewhere or something!"

Char rolled her eyes. "Oh please. I knew you were at Mike's and also I was in the shower. and I called you back right after, but your phone was off so I just came over and made myself comfortable until you decided to show up."

"I knew giving you a key was a bad idea."

She laughed and rolled over and got off the bed and went to my dresser where he purse was at and took out her chapstick. "Where were you for reals, though? I called Madison and she told me that she had no idea where you were. And she was back at Mike's."

Oh. "Nowhere, I just went to get some frozen yogurt with Troy because he gave me a ride home."

"Frozen yogurt for an hour?"

What? How does she know we've been together for almost an hour? "What?"

She shrugged. "I called Madison like 40 minutes ago, so I'm just rounding up." Oh.

"Yeah, and he just had to run a few errands. It's not a big deal. Why do I feel like I'm being interrogated?"

She laughed and went back to my bed and sat down and picked up the magazine. "No, I was just wondering. You um, you guys seem to be getting kind of close. How's that going?"

Oh God. Here we go. "Char, we're friends. Pretty sure he has a girlfriend."

She nodded as she flipped through some pages, "Yes. But pretty sure you're starting to like him."

She didn't even look up at me. She just kept flipping through the pages of the magazines as if her statement is true and no one can say otherwise. And you know, maybe it is. Maybe I am starting to like him. Maybe I should get to the bottom of it and find out if Megan is his girlfriend.

"He's nice, okay?"

Char looked up and smirked. "That was a really convincing no."

Ugh. I rolled my eyes and flopped on my bed. "I don't even know anymore. I'm not even thinking about it. I'm just going to let everything happen the way it's supposed to happen."

Yeah, that was good advice to myself.

"Atta girl."

It was probably easier said than done, though. Oh well.


End file.
